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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2018  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign  Alternates 


https://archive.org/details/bestthoughtssele00drum_0 


Henry  DRUA\/noND 


Best 

Thoughts 


SELECTIONS  EROAV  THE 
WRITINGS  OH 
HENRY  DRUA\A\OND 


PHILADELPHIA 

.HENRY  ALTEMUS  COMPANY 


Copyright,  1896,  by  Henry  Altemus. 


Best  Thoughts. 


INTRODUCTION. 


— 

t- 

The  compiler  believes  that  this  is 
not  an  ordinary  book  of  the  sort  for¬ 
merly  known  as  u  Elegant  Extracts.” 
An d  the  reason  lies  not  with  the  com¬ 
piler,  but  with  his  subject.  Professor 
Drummond’s  vivid,  pregnant,  and  epi¬ 
grammatic  method  makes  it  easy  to 
m 

compile  a  cento  that  shall  be  out  of 
the  ordinary.  In  this  author’s  works 
almost  every  sentence  stands  by  itself 
and  explains  itself.  The  setting  may 


4 


INTRODUCTION. 


add  stability  to  the  jewel :  it  does  not 
increase  its  lustre. 

In  these  days  of  unfaith  and  uncer¬ 
tainty  Professor  Drummond  presents 
an  almost  unique  spectacle — the  spec¬ 
tacle  of  a  man  who  has  mastered  all 
the  latest  theories  of  evolution  and 
given  in  his  adherence  to  the  latest 
discoveries  of  science  without  allow- 
ing  his  faith  to  moult  a  feather.  The 
reasons  for  the  faith  that  is  in  him  he 
has  presented  with  great  skill  in  his 
Natural  Law  in  the  Spiritual  World . 
The  compiler  believes  that  the  gist  of 
his  argument  is  summed  up  in  the 
selections  here  made  from  that  book. 


INTRODUCTION. 


5 

Professor  Drummond  has  also  pub¬ 
lished  a  series  of  striking  addresses 
upon  matters  of  daily  life  and  con¬ 
duct  which  have  been  freely  drawn 
upon  for  maxims  and  reflections,  and 
it  is  astonishing  how  little,  if  any,  of 
their  vitality  is  lost  in  the  process  of 
transplanting. 

The  title,  which  is  a  quotation 
made  by  Professor  Drummond  him¬ 
self  from  the  Biblical  text,  repre¬ 
sents  the  aim  and  purpose  of  the 
book,  which  is  to  give  a  succinct 
but  sufficient  resume  of  the  author’s 
views  on  religion  and  science  and 
their  mutual  relations  to  life. 


l 


n  /  n  r 


r 


“MY  POINT  OF  VIEW.” 


Bbstinence. 

The  expression  “total  abstinence” 
is  a  strictly  biological  formula.  It  im¬ 
plies  the  sudden  destruction  of  a  defi¬ 
nite  portion  of  Environment  by  the 
total  withdrawal  of  all  the  connecting- 
links.  Obviously,  of  course,  total  ab¬ 
stinence  ought  thus  to  be  allowed  a 
much  wider  application  than  to  cases 
of  “intemperance.”  It  is  the  only 
decisive  method  of  dealing  with  any 
sin  of  the  flesh.  The  very  nature  of 

the  relations  makes  it  absolutely  im- 

7 


8 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


perative  that  every  victim  of  unlaw¬ 
ful  appetite,  in  whatever  direction, 
shall  totally  abstain.  Hence  Christ’s 
apparently  extreme  and  peremptory 
language  defines  the  only  possible,  as 
well  as  the  only  charitable,  expedient : 
“If  thy  right  eye  offend  thee,  pluck 
it  out,  and  cast  it  from  thee.  And  if 
thy  right  hand  offend  thee,  cut  it  off, 
and  cast  it  from  thee.” 

Natural  Law  :  “  Mortification.’ ’ 


Hfc&ttion. 

People  often  tell  boys  that  if  they 
seek  the  kingdom  of  God,  everything 
else  is  going  to  be  subtracted  from 
them.  They  tell  them  that  they  are 


9 


MY  POINT  OP  VIEW. 

# 

going  to  become  gloomy,  miserable, 
and  will  lose  everything  that  makes 
a  boy’s  life  worth  living — that  they 
will  have  to  stop  baseball  and  story* 
books,  and  become  little  old  men,  and 
spend  all  their  time  in  going  to  meet¬ 
ings  and  in  singing  hymns.  Now, 
that  is  not  true.  Christ  never  said 
anything  like  that.  Christ  says  we 
are  to  “seek  first  the  kifigdom  of 
God,”  and  everything  else  worth  hav¬ 
ing  is  to  be  added  unto  us. 

“ First r 

adjustment 

Nature:  is  not  more  natural  to  my 
body  than  God  is  to  my  soul.  Every 
animal  and  plant  has  its  own  Environ- 


IO 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


ment.  And  the  further  one  inquires 
into  the  relations  of  the  one  to  the 
other,  the  more  one  sees  the  mar¬ 
vellous  intricacy  and  beauty  of  the 
adjustments.  These  wonderful  adap¬ 
tations  of  each  organism  to  its  sur¬ 
roundings — of  the  fish  to  the  water, 
of  the  eagle  to  the  air,  of  the  insect 
to  the  forest-bed — and  of  each  part  of 
every  organism — the  fish’s  swim-blad¬ 
der,  the  eagle’s  eye,  the  insect's  breath¬ 
ing-tubes — which  the  old  argument 
from  design  brought  home  to  us  with 
such  enthusiasm,  inspire  us  still  with 
a  sense  of  the  boundless  resources  and 
skill  of  Nature  in  perfecting  her  ar¬ 
rangements  for  each  single  life.  Down 
to  the  last  detail  the  world  is  made  for 


MY  POINT  OP  VIEW. 


II 


what  is  in  it ;  and  by  whatever  process 
things  are  as  they  are,  all  organisms 
find  in  surrounding  Nature  the  ample 
complement  of  themselves.  Man,  too, 
finds  in  his  Environment  provision  for 
all  capacities,  scope  for  the  exercise 
of  every  faculty,  room  for  the  indul¬ 
gence  of  each  appetite,  a  just  supply 
for  every  want.  So  the  spiritual  man 
at  the  apex  of  the  pyramid  of  life  finds 
in  the  vaster  range  of  his  Environment 
a  provision  as  much  higher,  it  is  true, 
as  he  is  higher,  but  as  delicately  ad¬ 
justed  to  his  varying  needs.  And  all 
this  is  supplied  to  him  just  as  the 
lower  organisms  are  ministered  to  by 
the  lower  environment,  in  the  same 
simple  ways,  in  the  same  constant 


12 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


sequence,  as  appropriately  and  as 
lavishly. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Environment.” 

Htwolutfon* 

Why  should  Evolution  stop  with 
the  Organic  ?  It  is  surely  obvi¬ 
ous  that  the  complement  of  Evolu¬ 
tion  is  Advolution,  and  the  inquiry, 
Whence  has  all  this  system  of  things 
come?  is,  after  all,  of  minor  import¬ 
ance  compared  with  the  question, 
Whither  does  all  tend? 

t 

Natural  Law  :  “  Classification.” 

agnosticism. 

The  Christian  apologist  never  fur¬ 
ther  misses  the  mark  than  when  he 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


*3 


refuses  the  testimony  of  the  Agnostic 
to  himself.  When  the  Agnostic  tells 
me  he  is  blind  and  deaf,  dumb,  torpid 
and  dead  to  the  spiritual  world,  I  must 
believe  him.  Jesus  tells  me  that. 
Paul  tells  me  that.  Science  tells  me 
that.  He  knows  nothing  of  this  outer¬ 
most  circle;  and  we  are  compelled  to 
trust  his  sincerity  as  readily  when  he 
deplores  it  as  if,  being  a  man  without 
an  ear,  he  professed  to  know  nothing 
of  a  musical  world,  or,  being  without 
taste,  of  a  world  of  art.  The  nescience 
of  the  Agnostic  philosophy  is  the 
proof  from  experience  that  to  be  car¬ 
nally  minded  is  Death. 


Natural  Law:  “Death.” 


H 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


almsgiving* 

Charity  is  only  a  little  bit  of  Love, 
one  of  the  innumerable  avenues  of 
Love,  and  there  may  even  be,  and 
there  is,  a  great  deal  of  charity  with¬ 
out  Love.  It  is  a  very  easy  thing  to 
toss  a  copper  to  a  beggar  on  the  street; 
it  is  generally  an  easier  thing  than  not 
to  do  it.  Yet  Love  is  just  as  often  in 
the  withholding.  We  purchase  relief 
from  the  sympathetic  feelings  roused 
by  the  spectacle  of  misery,  at  the  cop¬ 
per’s  cost.  It  is  too  cheap — too  cheap 
for  ns,  and  often  too  dear  for  the  beg¬ 
gar.  If  we  really  loved  him  we  would 
either  do  more  for  him,  or  less. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


15 


alternatives. 

It  is  the  deliberate  verdict  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  that  it  is  better  not  to  live 
than  not  to  love. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

Brtlmal  /IDan* 

IT  is  perfectly  astonishing,  when 
one  thinks  of  it,  what  Nature  can  do 
for  the  animal  man — to  see  with  what 
small  capital,  after  all,  a  human  be¬ 
ing  can  get  through  the  world.  I 
once  saw  an  African  buried.  Accord¬ 
ing  to  the  custom  of  his  tribe,  his 
entire  earthly  possessions — and  he  was 
an  average  commoner — were  buried 
with  him.  Into  the  grave,  after  the 
body,  was  lowered  the  dead  man’s 


i6 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


pipe,  then  a  rough  knife,  then  a  mud 
bowl,  and  last  his  bow  and  arrows — 
the  bowstring  cut  through  the  middle, 
a  touching  symbol  that  its  work  was 
done.  This  was  all.  Four  items,  as 
an  auctioneer  would  say,  were  the 
whole  belongings  for  half  a  century 
of  this  human  being.  No  man  knows 
what  a  man  is  till  he  has  seen  what  a 
man  can  be  without,  and  be  withal  a 
man.  That  is  to  say,  no  man  knows 
how  great  man  is  till  he  has  seen  how 
small  he  has  been  once. 

Tropical  Africa . 


Sreas. 

Suppose  we  deliberately  made  up 
our  minds  as  to  what  things  we  were 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


henceforth  to  allow  to  become  our 
life?  Suppose  we  selected  a  given 
area  of  our  Environment,  and  deter¬ 
mined  once  for  all  that  our  corre¬ 
spondences  should  go  to  that  alone, 
fencing  in  this  area  all  round  with  a 
morally  impassable  wall  ?  True,  to 
others  we  should  seem  to  live  a  poorer 
life  ;  they  would  see  that  our  environ¬ 
ment  was  circumscribed,  and  call  us 
narrow  because  it  was  narrow.  But, 
well-chosen,  this  limited  life  would  be 
reallv  the  fullest  life  ;  it  would  be 
rich  in  the  highest  and  worthiest,  and 
poor  in  the  smallest  and  basest,  corre 
spondences. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Mortification.* 


i8 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


Bscetictsm. 

It  is  well  to  remember  that  we  are 
to  give  our  bodies  a  living  sacrifice — 
not  a  half-dead  sacrifice,  as  some  peo¬ 
ple  seem  to  imagine.  There  is  no 
virtue  in  emaciation. 

How  to  Learn  How. 


Btbeists, 

Men  tell  us  sometimes  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  an  Atheist.  There 
must  be.  There  are  some  men  to 
whom  it  is  true  that  there  is  no  God. 
They  cannot  see  God  because  they 
have  no  eye.  They  have  only  an 
abortive  organ  atrophied  by  neglect. 


Natural  Law  :  “  Degeneration.” 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


I9 


Bttitufce* 

The  problem  of  the  Christian  life 
finally  is  simplified  to  this  :  man  has 
but  to  preserve  the  right  attitude.  To 
abide  in  Christ,  to  be  in  position — 
that  is  all.  Much  work  is  done  on 
board  a  ship  crossing  the  Atlantic. 
Yet  none  of  it  is  spent  on  making  the 
ship  go.  The  sailor  but  harnesses  his 
vessel  to  the  wind.  He  puts  his  sail 
and  rudder  in  position,  and  lo  !  the 
miracle  is  wrought.  So  everywhere 
God  creates,  man  utilizes.  All  the 
work  of  the  world  is  merely  a  taking 
advantage  of  energies  already  there. 
God  gives  the  wind  and  the  water  and 
the  heat ;  man  but  puts  himself  in  the 


20 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


way  of  the  wind,  fixes  his  water¬ 
wheel  in  the  way  of  the  river,  puts 
his  piston  in  the  way  of  the  steam  \ 
and  so,  holding  himself  in  position 
before  God’s  Spirit,  all  the  energies 
of  Omnipotence  course  within  his 
soul. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Growth.” 

Bttraction* 

The  weight  of  a  load  depends  upon 
the  attraction  of  the  earth.  But  sup¬ 
pose  the  attraction  of  the  earth  were 
removed  ?  A  ton  on  some  other  planet, 
where  the  attraction  of  gravity  is  less, 
does  not  weigh  half  a  ton.  Now 
Christianitv  removes  the  attraction  of 

j 

the  earth,  and  this  is  one  way  in  which 
it  diminishes  men's  burden.  It  makes 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


21 


them  citizens  of  another  world.  What 
was  a  ton  yesterday  is  not  half  a  ton 
to-day.  So  without  changing  one’s 
circumstances,  merely  by  offering  a 
wider  horizon  and  a  different  stand¬ 
ard,  it  alters  the  whole  aspect  of  the 
world. 

Pax  Vobiscum. 

3BachsU0ets* 

It  is  well  known  that  the  recovery 
of  the  backslider  is  one  of  the  hardest 
problems  in  spiritual  work.  To  rein¬ 
vigorate  an  old  organ  seems  more  dif¬ 
ficult  and  hopeless  than  to  develop  a 
new  one ;  and  the  backslider’s  terrible 
lot  is  to  have  to  retrace  with  enfeebled 
feet  each  step  of  the  way  along  which 


22 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


he  strayed  ;  to  make  up  inch  by  inch 
the  leeway  he  has  lost,  carrying  with 
him  a  dead-weight  of  acquired  reluct¬ 
ance,  and  scarce  knowing  whether 
to  be  stimulated  or  discouraged  by  the 
oppressive  memory  of  the  previous 
fall. 

Natural  Law:  “Degeneration.” 


3BacksUtono :  Ifts  penalty* 

The  penalty  of  backsliding  is  not 
something  unreal  and  vague,  some 
unknown  quantity  which  may  be 
measured  out  to  us  disproportion¬ 
ately,  or  which,  perchance,  since  God 
is  good,  we  may  altogether  evade. 
The  consequences  are  already  marked 
within  the  structure  of  the  soul.  So 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


23 

to  speak,  they  are  physiological.  The 
thing  affected  by  our  indifference  or 
by  our  indulgence  is  not  the  book  of 
final  judgment,  but  the  present  fabric 
of  the  soul. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Parasitism.” 

Barriers. 

In  the  dim  but  not  inadequate  vis¬ 
ion  of  the  Spiritual  World  presented 
in  the  Word  of  God  the  first  thing 
that  strikes  the  eye  is  a  great  gulf 
fixed.  The  passage  from  the  Natural 
World  to  the  Spiritual  World  is  her¬ 
metically  sealed  on  the  natural  side. 
The  door  from  the  inorganic  to  the 
organic  is  shut ;  no  mineral  can  open 
it ;  so  the  door  from  the  natural  to 


24 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


the  spiritual  is  shut,  and  no  man  can 
open  it.  This  world  of  natural  men 
is  staked  off  from  the  Spiritual  World 
by  barriers  which  have  never  yet  been 
crossed  from  within.  No  organic 
change,  no  modification  of  environ¬ 
ment,  no  mental  energy,  no  moral 
effort,  no  evolution  of  character,  no 
progress  of  civilization,  can  endow 
any  single  human  soul  with  the  attri¬ 
bute  of  Spiritual  Life.  The  Spiritual 
World  is  guarded  from  the  world  next 
in  order  beneath  it  by  a  law  of  Bio¬ 
genesis  :  Except  a  man  be  born  again , 

.  .  .  except  a  man  be  born  of  zvater 
and  of  the  Spirit ,  he  cannot  enter  the 
Kingdom  of  God . 


Natural  Law  :  “  Biogenesis.” 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


25 


:SSeaut£  of  Character. 

Under  the  light  conditions  it  is  as 
natural  for  character  to  become  beau¬ 
tiful  as  for  a  flower  ;  and  if  on  God’s 
earth  there  is  not  some  machinery  for 
effecting  it,  the  supreme  gift  to  the 
world  has  been  forgotten.  This  is 
simply  what  man  was  made  for. 
With  Browning:  “I  say  that  Man 
was  made  to  grow,  not  stop.  ”  Or  in 
the  deeper  words  of  an  older  Book  : 
“Whom  He  did  foreknow,  He  also 
did  predestinate  .  .  .  to  be  conformed 
to  the  Image  of  His  Son.” 

The  Changed  Life. 


26 


MY  POINT  OK  VIEW. 


JBeaut#  of  tbe  Tamverse* 

As  a  mere  spectacle,  the  universe 
to-day  discloses  a  beauty  so  transcend¬ 
ent  that  he  who  disciplines  himself  by 
scientific  work  finds  it  an  overwhelm¬ 
ing  reward  simply  to  behold  it. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Introduction.” 

jBeautp,  /IBoral  attD  Spiritual. 

What  is  the  essential  difference  be¬ 
tween  the  Christian  and  the  not-a- 
Christian — between  the  spiritual  beau¬ 
ty  and  the  moral  beauty  ?  It  is  the 
distinction  between  the  Organic  and 
the  Inorganic.  Moral  beauty  is  the 
product  of  the  natural  man,  spiritual 
beauty  of  the  spiritual  man.  And 
these  two,  according  to  the  law  of 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


27 


Biogenesis,  are  separated  from  one 
another  by  the  deepest  line  known  to 
Science.  This  Law  is  at  once  the 
foundation  of  Biology  and  of  Spiritual 
Religion.  And  the  whole  fabric  of 
Christianity  falls  into  confusion  if  we 
attempt  to  ignore  it.  The  Law  of 
Biogenesis,  in  fact,  is  to  be  regarded 
as  the  equivalent  in  biology  of  the 
First  Law  of  motion  in  physics  :  Every 
body  continues  in  its  state  of  rest ,  or  of 
uniform  motion  in  a  straight  line ,  ex¬ 
cept  in  so  far  as  it  is  compelled,  by  force 
to  change  that  state . 

Natural  Law  :  “  Classification.” 

Beginnings. 

The  creation  of  a  new  heart,  the 
renewing  of  a  right  spirit,  is  an  om- 


28 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


nipotent  work  of  God.  Leave  it  to 
the  Creator.  4 4  He  which  hath  begun 
a  good  work  in  you  will  perfect  it 
unto  that  day.” 

The  Changed  Life . 


JSeiitg. 

What  we  are  stretches  past  what 
we  do,  beyond  what  we  possess. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


belief  In  <5o&. 

I  say  that  man  believes  in  a  God 
who  feels  himself  in  the  presence  of  a 
Power  which  is  not  himself,  and  is 
immeasurably  above  himself — a  Power 
in  the  contemplation  of  which  he  is 
absorbed,  in  the  knowledge  of  which 
he  finds  safety  and  happiness. 

Natural  Law:  “  Death.” 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


29 


Ube  Best. 

Christ  tries  to  make  the  best  world 
by  setting  the  best  men  loose  upon 
the  world  to  influence  it  and  reflect 
Him  upon  it. 

What  is  a  Christian  ? 

Ube  Mble. 

The  Bible  is  a  product  of  religion, 
not  a  cause  of  it.  The  war  literature 
of  America,  which  culminated,  I  sup¬ 
pose,  in  the  publication  of  President 
Grant’s  life,  came  out  of  the  war;  the 
war  did  not  come  out  of  the  literature. 
And  so  in  the  distant  past  there  flowed 
amonp*  the  nations  of  heathendom  a 

o 

small,  warm  stream,  like  the  Gulf 
Stream  in  the  cold  Atlantic — a  small 


3° 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


stream  of  religion ;  and  now  and 
then,  at  intervals,  men,  carried  along 
by  this  stream,  uttered  themselves  in 
words.  The  historical  books  came 
out  of  facts  ;  the  devotional  books 
came  out  of  experiences  ;  the  letters 
came  out  of  circumstances  ;  and  the 
Gospels  came  out  of  all  three.  That 
is  where  the  Bible  came  from.  It 
came  out  of  religion  ;  religion  did  not 
come  out  of  the  Bible. 

The  Study  of  the  Bible. 


3Btooenesis, 

At  the  beginning  of  the  natural 
life  we  find  the  Law  that  natural  life 
can  only  come  from  pre-existing  nat¬ 
ural  life  ;  and  at  the  beginning  of  the 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


31 


spiritual  life  we  find  that  the  spiritual 
life  can  only  come  from  pre-existing 
spiritual  life.  But  there  are  not  two 
Laws  ;  there  is  one — Biogenesis.  At 
one  end  the  Law  is  dealing  with  mat¬ 
ter,  at  the  other  with  spirit.  The 
qualitative  terms  natural  and  spiritual 
make  no  difference.  Biogenesis  is 
the  Law  for  all  life  and  for  all  kinds 
of  life,  and  the  particular  substance 
with  which  it  is  associated  is  as  indif¬ 
ferent  to  Biogenesis  as  it  is  to  Gravi¬ 
tation.  Gravitation  will  act  whether 
the  substance  be  suns  and  stars,  or 
grains  of  sand,  or  rain-drops.  Bio¬ 
genesis,  in  like  manner,  will  act  wher¬ 
ever  there  is  life. 


Natural  Law  :  “  Biogenesis,” 


3^ 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


JSi rtb  a  /liMracle, 


Peopling  these  worlds  with  the  ap¬ 
propriate  living  forms  is  virtually  mir¬ 
acle.  Nor  in  one  case  is  there  less 
of  mystery  in  the  act  than  in  the 
other.  The  second  birth  is  scarcely 
less  perplexing  to  the  theologian  thax 
the  first  to  the  embryologist. 


Natural  Law  :  “  Biogenesis.’^ 


3Btrtb  anb  IFlew  JStrtb. 


Except  a  mineral  be  born  u  from 

above  ’  ’  — from  the  Kingdom  just  above 

% 

it — it  cannot  enter  the  Kingdom  just 
above  it.  And  except  a  man  be  born 
“from  above, n  by  the  same  law  he 
cannot  enter  the  Kingdom  just  above 
him.  There  being  no  passage  from 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


33 


one  Kingdom  to  another,  whether 
from  inorganic  to  organic  or  from  or¬ 
ganic  to  spiritual,  the  intervention  of 
Life  is  a  scientific  necessity  if  a  stone 
or  a  plant  or  an  animal  or  a  man  is  to 
pass  from  a  lower  to  a  higher  sphere. 
The  plant  stretches  down  to  the  dead 
world  beneath  it,  touches  its  minerals 
and  gases  with  its  mystery  of  Life, 
and  brings  them  up  ennobled  and 
transformed  to  the  living  sphere.  The 
breath  of  God,  blowing  where  it  list- 
eth,  touches  with  its  mystery  of  Life 
the  dead  souls  of  men,  bears  them 
across  the  bridgeless  gulf  between  the 
natural  and  the  spiritual,  between  the 
spiritually  inorganic  and  the  spirit¬ 
ually  organic,  endows  them  with  its 


34 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


own  high  qualities,  and  develops  with¬ 
in  them  those  new  and  sweet  facul¬ 
ties  by  which  those  who  are  born 
again  are  said  to  see  the  Kingdom  of 
God. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Biogenesis.” 

JBoofts :  Ibow  to  Cboose  Tlbem. 

Do  not  be  distressed  if  you  do  not  like 
time-honored  books  or  classical  works 
or  recommended  books.  Choose  for 
yourself;  trust  yourself;  plant  yourself 
on  your  own  instincts  ;  that  which  is 
natural  for  us,  that  which  nourishes  us 
and  gives  us  appetite,  is  that  which 
is  right  for  us.  We  have  all  different 
minds,  and  we  are  all  at  different 
stages  of  growth.  Some  other  day  we 
may  find  food  in  the  recommended 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


35 


book,  though  we  should  possibly 
starve  on  it  to-day.  The  mind  de¬ 
velops  and  changes,  and  the  favorites 
of  this  year,  also,  may  one  day  cease 
to  interest  us.  Nothing  better,  in¬ 
deed,  can  happen  to  us  than  to  lose 
interest  in  a  book  we  have  often  read  ; 
for  it  means  that  it  has  done  its  work 
upon  us,  brought  us  up  to  its  level, 
and  taught  us  all  it  had  to  teach. 

On  Books . 

JSoofes:  Ubefr  jfdenbsblp. 

To  fall  in  love  with  a  good  book  is 
one  of  the  greatest  events  that  can  be¬ 
fall  us.  It  is  to  have  a  new  influence 
pouring  itself  into  our  life,,  a  new 
teacher  to  inspire  and  refine  us,  a  new 
friend  to  be  by  our  side  always,  who, 


36 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


when  life  grows  narrow  and  weary, 
will  take  us  into  his  wider  and  calmer 
and  higher  world.  Whether  it  be 
biography,  introducing  us  to  some 
humble  life  made  great  by  duty  done  ; 
or  history,  opening  vistas  into  the 
movements  and  destinies  of  nations 
that  have  passed  away  ;  or  poetry, 
making  music  of  all  the  common 
things  around  us,  and  filling  the  fields 
and  the  skies  and  the  works  of  the  city 
and  the  cottage  with  eternal  meanings 
— whether  it  be  these,  or  story-books, 
or  religious  books,  or  science,  no  one 
can  become  the  friend  even  of  one 
good  book  without  being  made  wiser 
and  better. 


On  Books. 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


37 


JSorberlanbs. 

The  physical  Laws  may  explain 
the  inorganic  world  ;  the  biological 
Laws  may  account  for  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  the  organic.  But  of  the 
point  where  they  meet,  of  that  strange 
borderland  between  the  dead  and  the 
living,  Science  is  silent.  It  is  as  if 
God  had  placed  everything  in  earth 
and  heaven  in  the  hands  of  Nature, 
but  reserved  a  point  at  the  genesis  of 
Life  for  His  direct  appearing. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Biogenesis.” 

IBu&fcbtsm. 

There  is  no  analogy  between  the 
Christian  religion  and  Buddhism  or 
the  Mohammedan  religion.  There  is 


38 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


no  true  sense  in  which  a  man  can  say, 
“He  that  hath  Buddha  hath  Life.” 
Buddha  has  nothing'  to  do  with  Life. 
He  may  have  something  to  do  with 
morality.  He  may  stimulate,  impress, 
teach,  guide,  but  there  is  no  distinct 
new  thing  added  to  the  souls  of  those 
who  profess  Buddhism.  These  relig¬ 
ions  may  be  developments  of  the  nat¬ 
ural,  mental,  or  moral  man.  But 
Christianity  professes  to  be  more.  It 
is  the  mental  or  moral  man  plus  some¬ 
thing  else  or  some  One  else.  It  is  the 
infusion  into  the  Spiritual  man  of  a 
New  Life,  of  a  quality  unlike  any¬ 
thing  else  in  Nature.  This  consti¬ 
tutes  the  separate  Kingdom  of  Christ, 
and  gives  to  Christianity  alone,  of  all 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


39 


the  religions  of  mankind,  the  strange 
mark  of  Divinity. 

Natural  Law:  “  Biogenesis. ” 

Calm. 

Christ’s  life  outwardly  was  one  of 
the  most  troubled  lives  that  was  ever 
lived :  tempest  and  tumult,  tumult 
and  tempest,  the  waves  breaking  over 
it  all  the  time  till  the  worn  body  was 
laid  in  the  grave.  But  the  inner  life 
was  a  sea  of  glass.  The  great  calm 
was  always  there.  At  any  moment 
you  might  have  gone  to  Him  and 
found  Rest. 

Pax  Vobiscum. 

Carelessness. 

WE  fail  to  appreciate  the  meaning 
of  spiritual  degeneration  or  detect  the 


40 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


terrible  nature  of  the  consequences 
only  because  they  evade  the  eye  of 
sense.  But  could  we  investigate 
the  spirit  as  a  living  organism,  or 
study  the  soul  of  the  backslider  on 
principles  of  comparative  anatomy, 
we  should  have  a  revelation  of  the 
organic  effects  of  sin,  even  of  the  mere 
sin  of  carelessness  as  to  growth  and 
work,  which  must  revolutionize  our 
ideas  of  practical  religion.  There  is 
no  room  for  the  doubt  even  that  what 
goes  on  in  the  body  does  not  with 
equal  certainty  take  place  in  the  spirit 
under  the  corresponding  conditions. 


Natural  Law  :  “  Parasitism.” 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


41 


Cause  ant>  Effect 

Things  are  so  arranged  in  the  orig¬ 
inal  planning  of  the  world  that  cer¬ 
tain  effects  must  follow  certain  causes, 
and  certain  causes  must  be  abolished 
before  certain  effects  can  be  removed. 

Pax  Vobiscum. 

The  Christian  life  is  not  casual, 
but  causal.  All  nature  is  a  standing 
protest  against  the  absurdity  of  ex¬ 
pecting  to  secure  spiritual  effects,  or 
any  effects,  without  the  employment 
of  appropriate  causes.  The  Great 
Teacher  dealt  what  ought  to  have 
been  the  final  blow  to  this  infinite 
irrelevancy  by  a  single  question:  u  Do 


42 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


men  gather  grapes  of  thorns,  or  figs  of 
thistles?” 

Pax  Vobiscum. 


Centres. 

The  perfection  of  unity  is  attained 
where  there  is  infinite  variety  of  phe¬ 
nomena,  infinite  complexity  of  rela¬ 
tion,  but  great  simplicity  of  Law. 
Science  will  be  complete  when  all 
known  phenomena  can  be  arranged 
in  one  vast  circle  in  which  a  few  well- 
known  Laws  shall  form  the  radii, 
these  radii  at  once  separating  and 
uniting — separating  into  particular 
groups,  yet  uniting  all  to  a  common 
centre. 


Natural  Law  :  “  Introduction.” 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


43 


Cbattce. 

Nothing  that  happens  in  the  world 
happens  by  chance.  God  is  a  God  of 
order.  Everything  is  arranged  upon 
definite  principles,  and  never  at  ran¬ 
dom. 

Pax  Vobiscutn . 

Try  to  give  up  the  idea  that  relig¬ 
ion  comes  to  us  by  chance  or  by  mys¬ 
tery  or  by  caprice.  It  comes  to  us  by 
natural  law,  or  by  supernatural  law, 
fo«  all  law  is  Divine. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

Change. 

Not  more  certain  is  it  that  it  is 
something  outside  of  the  thermometer 


44 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


that  produces  a  change  in  the  ther¬ 
mometer,  than  it  is  something  out¬ 
side  the  soul  of  man  that  produces  a 
moral  change  upon  him. 

The  Changed  Life . 

Will-power  does  not  change  men. 
Time  does  not  change  men.  Christ 
does.  Therefore  “Let  that  mind  be 
in  you  which  is  also  in  Christ  Jesus.  ” 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

Character. 

It  is  not  said  that  the  character  will 
develop  in  all  its  fulness  in  this  life. 
That  were  a  time  too  short  for  an 
Evolution  so  magnificent.  In  this 
world  only  the  cornless  ear  is  seen  ; 
sometimes  only  the  small  yet  still  pro¬ 
phetic  blade.  Natural  Law. 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


45 


Of  all  unseen  things,  the  most  radi¬ 
ant,  the  most  beautiful,  the  most  di¬ 
vine,  is  character. 

The  Changed  Life . 

Cbtt&sSplrtt. 

The  New  Testament  is  nowhere 
more  impressive  than  where  it  insists 
on  the  fact  of  man’s  dependence.  In 
its  view  the  first  step  in  religion  is  for 
man  to  feel  his  helplessness.  Christ’s 
first  beatitude  is  to  the  poor  in  spirit. 
The  condition  of  entrance  into  the 
spiritual  kingdom  is  to  possess  the 
child-spirit — that  state  of  mind  com¬ 
bining  at  once  the  profoundest  help¬ 
lessness  with  the  most  artless  feeling 
of  dependence.  Substantially  the 
same  idea  underlies  the  countless 


46  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


passages  in  which  Christ  affirms  that 
He  has  not  come  to  call  the  righteous, 
but  sinners,  to  repentance. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Environment.” 

% 

Gbiist. 

To  become  like  Christ  is  the  only 
thing  in  the  world  worth  caring  for, 
the  thing  before  which  every  ambi¬ 
tion  of  man  is  folly,  and  all  lower 
achievement  vain.  Those  only  who 
make  this  quest  the  supreme  desire 
and  passion  of  their  lives  can  even 
begin  to  hope  to  reach  it. 

The  Changed  Life . 

Cbrist  t be  Source  of  Sop. 

Christ  is  the  source  of  Joy  to  men 
in  the  sense  in  which  He  is  the  source 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


47 


of  Rest.  His  people  share  His  life, 
and  therefore  share  its  consequences, 
and  one  of  these  is  Joy.  His  method 
of  living  is  one  that  in  the  nature  of 
things  produces  Joy.  When  He  spoke 
of  His  Joy  remaining  with  us  He 
meant  in  part  that  the  causes  which 
produced  it  should  continue  to  act. 
His  followers,  that  is  to  say,  by  repeat¬ 
ing  His  life  would  experience  its  ac¬ 
companiments.  His  Joy,  His  kind  of 
Joy,  would  remain  with  them. 

Pax  Vobiscum. 

Cbrist:  Wbo  anb  TKUbere  ts  1b e  ? 

Thank  God  the  Christianity  of  to^ 
day  is  coming  nearer  the  world’s 
need  !  Live  to  help  that  on.  Thank 


48 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


God  men  know  better,  by  a  hair’s- 
breadth,  what  religion  is,  what  God 
is,  who  Christ  is,  where  Christ  is ! 
Who  is  Christ  ?  He  who  fed  the  hun¬ 
gry,  clothed  the  naked,  visited  the 
sick.  And  where  is  Christ?  Where? 
Whoso  shall  receive  a  little  child  in 
My  name  receiveth  Me.  And  who  are 
Christ’s?  Every  one  that  loveth  is 
born  of  God. 


The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


Cbrtet’s  Influence* 

There  is  only  one  great  character 
in  the  world  that  can  really  draw  out 
all  that  is  best  in  men.  He  is  so  far 
above  all  others  in  influencing  men 
for  good  that  He  stands  alone.  That 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


49 


man  was  the  founder  of  Christianity. 
To  be  a  Christian  man  is  to  have  that 
character  for  our  ideal  in  life,  to  live 
under  its  influence,  to  do  what  He 
would  wish  us  to  do,  to  live  the  kind 
of  life  He  would  have  lived  in  our 
house,  and  had  He  our  day’s  routine 
to  go  through. 

What  is  a  Christian  ? 

Cbrist’s  /IDanlmess* 

You  would  be  surprised  when  you 
come  to  know  who  Christ  is,  if  you 
have  not  thought  much  about  it,  to 
find  how  He  will  fit  in  with  all  hu¬ 
man  needs,  and  call  out  all  that  is 
best  in  man.  The  highest  and  man¬ 
liest  character  that  ever  lived  was 
Christ.  What  is  a  Christian  ? 


50 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


Christ’s  Secret* 

“Love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  Law.” 
It  is  the  rule  for  fulfilling  all  rules, 
the  new  commandment  for  keeping 
all  the  old  commandments,  Christ’s 
one  secret  of  the  Christian  life. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

Christ’s  Serenity* 

Nothing  ever  for  a  moment  broke 
the  serenity  of  Christ’s  life  on  earth. 
Misfortune  could  not  reach  Him  ;  He 
had  no  fortune.  Food,  raiment, 
money — fountain-heads  of  half  the 
world’s  weariness  —  He  simply  did 
not  care  for  ;  they  played  no  part  in 
His  life;  He  “  took  no  thought”  for 
them.  It  was  impossible  to  affect 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


51 


Him  by  lowering  His  reputation.  He 
had  already  made  himself  of  no  repu¬ 
tation.  He  was  dumb  before  insult. 
When  He  was  reviled  He  reviled  not 
again.  In  fact,  there  was  nothing 
that  the  world  could  do  to  Him  that 
could  ruffle  the  surface  of  His  spirit. 

Pax  Vobiscum . 

Spurious  Christians* 

WE  are,  of  course,  not  responsible 
for  everything  that  is  said  in  the 
name  of  Christianity  ;  but  a  man  does 
not  give  up  medicine  because  there 
are  quack  doctors,  and  no  man  has  a 
right  to  give  up  his  Christianity  be¬ 
cause  there  are  spurious  or  inconsist¬ 
ent  Christians. 


How  to  Know  How . 


52 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


THnlox>el£  Christians. 

How  many  prodigals  are  kept  out  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God  by  the  unlovely 
character  of  those  who  profess  to  be 
inside  ! 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World . 

Z be  Crue  Christian. 

When  a  man  becomes  a  Christian 
the  natural  process  is  this  :  The  Liv¬ 
ing  Christ  enters  into  his  soul.  De¬ 
velopment  begins.  The  quickening 
Life  seizes  upon  the  soul,  assimilates 
surrounding  elements,  and  begins  to 
fashion  it.  According  to  the  great 
Law  of  Conformity  to  Type,  this 
fashioning  takes  a  specific  form.  It 
is  that  of  the  Artist  who  fashions. 


MY  POINT  'OF  VIEW. 


53 


And  all  through  Life  this  wonderful, 
mystical,  glorious,  yet  perfectly  def¬ 
inite  process  goes  on  “  until  Christ  be 

formed  ’  ’  in  it. 

Natural  Law :  “  Conformity  to  Type.” 

Christianity  a  Xeaven* 

WE  are  told  in  the  New  Testament 
that  Christianity  is  leaven,  and  u  leav¬ 
en7’  comes  from  the  same  root- word 
as  lever,  meaning  that  which  raises  up, 
which  elevates  ;  and  a  Christian  young 
man  is  a  man  who  raises  up  or  ele¬ 
vates  the  lives  of  those  round  about 
him. 

What  is  a  Christian  ? 

Classification* 

The  difference  between  the  Spirit¬ 
ual  man  and  the  Natural  man  is  not 


/ 


54 


MY  POINT  OP  VIEW. 


a  difference  of  development,  but  of 
generation.  It  is  a  distinction  of 
quality,  not  of  quantity.  A  man  can¬ 
not  rise  by  any  natural  development 
from  “ morality  touched  by  emotion” 
to  4  4  morality  touched  by  Life.  ’  ’  Were 
we  to  construct  a  scientific  classifica¬ 
tion,  Science  would  compel  us  to  ar¬ 
range  all  Natural  men,  moral  or  im¬ 
moral,  educated  or  vulgar,  as  one 
family.  One  might  be  high  in  the 
family  group,  another  low  ;  yet,  prac¬ 
tically,  they  are  marked  by  the  same 
set  of  characteristics — they  eat,  sleep, 
work,  think,  live,  die.  But  the  Spirit¬ 
ual  man  is  removed  from  this  family 
so  utterly  by  the  possession  of  an  ad¬ 
ditional  characteristic  that  a  biologist, 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


55 


fully  informed  of  the  whole  circum¬ 
stances,  would  not  hesitate  a  moment 
to  classify  him  elsewhere.  And  if  he 
really  entered  into  these  circum¬ 
stances,  it  would  not  be  in  another 
family,  but  in  another  Kingdom.  It 
is  an  old-fashioned  theology  which 
divides  the  world  in  this  way — which 
speaks  of  men  as  Living  and  Dead, 
Lost  and  Saved — a  stern  theology  all 
but  fallen  into  disuse.  This  differ¬ 
ence  between  the  Living  and  the  Dead 
in  souls  is  so  unproved  by  casual  ob¬ 
servation,  so  impalpable  in  itself,  so 
startling  as  a  doctrine,  that  schools 
of  culture  have  ridiculed  or  denied 
the  grim  distinction.  Nevertheless 
the  grim  distinction  must  be  retained. 


56  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


It  is  a  scientific  distinction.  “He 
that  hath  not  the  Son  hath  not  Life.” 

Natural  Law  :  “  Biogenesis.” 

Content* 

Do  not  quarrel,  therefore,  with  your 
lot  in  life.  Do  not  complain  of  its 
never-ceasing  cares,  its  petty  environ¬ 
ment,  the  vexations  you  have  to  stand, 
the  small  and  sordid  souls  you  have  to 
live  and  work  with.  Above  all,  do  not 
resent  temptation;  do  not  be  perplexed 
because  it  seems  to  thicken  round  you 
more  and  more,  and  ceases  neither 
for  effort  nor  for  agony  nor  prayer. 
That  is  your  practice.  That  is  the 
practice  which  God  appoints  you. 
And  it  is  having  its  work  in  making 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


57 


you  patient,  and  humble,  and  gener¬ 
ous,  and  unselfish,  and  kind,  and 
courteous. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

Ube  Commonplace. 

Nothing  in  this  age  is  more  needed 
in  every  department  of  knowledge 
than  the  rejuvenescence  of  the  com¬ 
monplace.  In  the  spiritual  world 
especially,  he  will  be  wise  who  courts 
acquaintance  with  the  most  ordinary 
and  transparent  facts  of  nature. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Environment.’ ’ 

“ConstOer  tbe  Xilp.” 

Christ’s  words  are  not  a  general 
appeal  to  consider  nature.  Men  are 
not  to  consider  the  lilies  simply  to 


58 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


admire  their  beauty,  to  dream  over 
the  delicate  strength  and  grace  of 
stem  and  leaf.  The  point  they  were 
to  consider  was  how  they  grew — how 
without  anxiety  or  care  the  flower 
woke  into  loveliness,  how  without 
weaving  these  leaves  were  woven, 
how  without  toiling  these  complex 
tissues  spun  themselves,  and  how 
without  any  effort  or  friction  the 
whole  slowly  came  ready-made  from 
the  loom  of  God  in  its  more  than 
Solomon-like  glory.  “  So,”  He  says, 
making  the  application  beyond  dis¬ 
pute,  “you  careworn,  anxious  men 
must  grow.  You,  too,  need  take  no 
thought  for  your  life,  what  ye  shall 
eat,  or  what  ye  shall  drink,  or  what 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


59 


ye  shall  put  on.  For  if  God  so  clothe 
the  grass  of  the  field,  which  to-day  is, 
and  to-morrow  is  cast  into  the  oven, 
shall  He  not  much  more  clothe  you, 
O  ye  of  little  faith?” 

Natural  Law  :  “  Growth.’ ’ 

Consumption  anO  Hts  Spiritual 

analogue. 

The  soul  undergoing  Degeneration, 
surely  by  some  arrangement  with 
Temptation  planned  in  the  uttermost 
hell,  possesses  the  power  of  absolute 
secrecy.  When  all  within  is  festering 
decay  and  rottenness,  a  Judas,  with¬ 
out  anomaly,  may  kiss  his  Lord. 
This  invisible  consumption,  like  its 
fell  analogue  in  the  natural  world, 


6o 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


may  even  keep  its  victim  beautiful 
while  slowly  slaying  it. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Degeneration.” 

Continuity 

Probably  the  most  satisfactory  way 
to  secure  for  one’s  self  a  just  appreci¬ 
ation  of  the  principle  of  Continuity 
is  to  try  to  conceive  the  universe  with¬ 
out  it.  The  opposite  of  a  continuous 
universe  would  be  a  discontinuous 
universe,  an  incoherent  and  irrelevant 
universe — as  irrelevant  in  all  its  ways 
of  doing  things  as  an  irrelevant  per¬ 
son.  In  effect,  to  withdraw  Contin¬ 
uity  from  the  universe  would  be  the 
same  as  to  withdraw  reason  from  an 
individual.  The  universe  would  run 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


6l 

deranged  ;  the  world  would  be  a  mad 
world. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Law  of  Continuity.’* 

Continuous  2taw. 

The  Natural  Laws  are  not  the 
shadows  or  images  of  the  Spiritual 
in  the  same  sense  as  autumn  is  em¬ 
blematical  of  Decay,  or  the  falling 
leaf  of  Death.  The  Natural  Laws, 
as  the  Law  of  Continuity  might  well 
warn  us,  do  not  stop  with  the  visible, 
and  then  give  place  to  a  new  set  of 
Laws  bearing  a  strong  similitude  to 
them.  The  Laws  of  the  invisible 
are  the  same  Laws,  projections  of  the 
natural,  not  supernatural.  Analogous 
phenomena  are  not  the  fruit  of  parallel 


62 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


Laws,  but  of  the  same  Laws — Laws 
which  at  one  end,  as  it  were,  may  be 
dealing  with  Matter,  at  the  other  end 
with  Spirit. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Law  of  Continuity.” 

Conversion  is  Sufc&en, 

The  change  from  Death  to  Life, 
alike  in  the  natural  and  spiritual 
spheres,  is  the  work  of  a  moment. 
Whatever  the  conscious  hour  of  the 
second  birth  may  be — in  the  case  of 
an  adult  it  is  probably  defined  by  the 
first  real  victory  over  sin — it  is  certain 
that  on  biological  principles  the  real 
turning-point  is  literally  a  moment. 
But  on  moral  and  humane  grounds 
this  misunderstood,  perverted,  and 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


63 


therefore  despised  doctrine  is  equally 
capable  of  defence.  Were  any  re¬ 
former,  with  an  adequate  knowledge 
of  human  life,  to  sit  down  and  plan 
a  scheme  for  the  salvation  of  sinful 
men,  he  would  probably  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  best  way,  after 
all — perhaps,  indeed,  the  only  way — 
to  turn  a  sinner  from  the  error  of  his 
ways  would  be  to  do  it  suddenly. 

Natziral  Law  :  “  Death.’ * 

Communion  wltb  <3o0. 

Communion  with  God — can  it  be 
demonstrated  in  terms  of  Science  that 

t 

this  is  a  correspondence  which  will 
never  break?  We  do  not  appeal  to 
Science  for  such  a  testimony.  We 


64 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


have  asked  for  its  conception  of  an 
Eternal  Life,  and  we  have  received 
for  answer  that  Eternal  Life  would 
consist  in  a  correspondence  which 
should  never  cease,  with  an  Environ¬ 
ment  which  should  never  pass  away. 
And  yet  what  would  Science  demand 
of  a  perfect  correspondence  that  is 
not  met  by  this,  the  knowing  of  God  f 
There  is  no  other  correspondence 
which  could  satisfy  one  at  least  of  the 
conditions.  Not  one  could  be  named 
which  would  not  bear  on  the  face  of 
it  the  mark  and  pledge  of  its  mortal¬ 
ity.  But  this,  to  know  God,  stands 
alone. 


Natural  Law  :  “  Eternal  Life.” 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


65 


Completeness* 

The  Christian  life  is  the  only  life 
that  will  ever  be  completed.  Apart 
from  Christ  the  life  of  man  is  a  broken 
pillar,  the  race  of  men  an  unfinished 
pyramid.  One  by  one,  in  sight  of 
Eternity,  all  human  ideals  fall  short; 
one  by  one,  before  the  open  grave,  all 
human  hopes  dissolve. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Conformity  to  Type.” 


Conflict* 

Keep  in  the  midst  of  Eife.  Do  not 
isolate  yourself.  Be  among  men,  and 
among  things,  and  among  troubles  and 
difficulties  and  obstacles.  You  re¬ 
member  Goethe’s  words:  u Talent  de- 

C 


66 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


velops  itself  in  solitude,  character  in 
the  stream  of  life.” 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

Correspondence  wttb  ©od* 

Man’s  spiritual  life  consists  in  the 
number  and  fulness  of  his  correspond¬ 
ences  with  God.  In  order  to  develop 
these  he  may  be  constrained  to  insu¬ 
late  them,  to  enclose  them  from  the 
other  correspondences,  to  shut  himself 
in  with  them.  In  many  ways  the 
limitation  of  the  natural  life  is  the 
necessary  condition  of  the  full  enjoy= 
ment  of  the  spiritual  life. 


Natural  Law  :  “  Mortification.” 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


67 


Courtesy. 

Politeness  has  been  defined  as 
love  in  trifles.  Courtesy  is  said  to 
be  love  in  little  things.  And  the 
one  secret  of  politeness  is  to  love. 
Love  cannot  behave  itself  unseemly. 
You  can  put  the  most  untutored  per¬ 
sons  into  the  highest  society,  and  if 
they  have  a  reservoir  of  Love  in  their 
heart  they  will  not  behave  themselves 
unseemly.  They  simply  cannot  do 
it. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

Criticism. 

It  is  easier  to  criticise  the  best 
thing  superbly  than  to  do  the  smallest 
thing  indifferently. 


What  is  a  Christian  ? 


68 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


Cross. 

The  whole  cross  is  more  easily 
carried  than  the  half. 

Natural  Law:  “  Mortification.” 

5>eatb  In  IRature* 

We  are  wont  to  imagine  that  Na¬ 
ture  is  full  of  Life.  In  reality  it  is 
full  of  Death.  One  cannot  say  it  is 
natural  for  a  plant  to  live.  Examine 
its  nature  fully,  and  you  have  to  ad¬ 
mit  that  its  natural  tendency  is  to  die. 
It  is  kept  from  dying  by  a  mere  tem¬ 
porary  endowment  which  gives  it  an 
ephemeral  dominion  over  the  elements 
— gives  it  power  to  utilize  for  a  brief 
span  the  rain,  the  sunshine,  and  the 
air.  Withdraw  this  temporary  en- 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW.  69 


dowment  for  a  moment  and  its  true 
nature  is  revealed.  Instead  of  over¬ 
coming  Nature  it  is  overcome.  The 
very  things  which  appeared  to  minis¬ 
ter  to  its  growth  and  beauty  now  turn 
against  it  and  make  it  decay  and  die. 
The  sun  which  warmed  it,  withers  it; 
the  air  and  rain  which  nourished  it, 
#  rot  it.  It  is  the  very  forces  which  we 
associate  with  life  which,  when  their 
true  nature  appears,  are  discovered  to 
be  really  the  ministers  of  death. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Degeneration.” 

Death  a  Step  in  Evolution. 

The  part  of  the  organism  which 
begins  to  get  out  of  correspondence 
with  the  Organic  Environment  is  the 


70 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


only  part  which  is  in  vital  correspond¬ 
ence  with  it  Though  a  fatal  disad¬ 
vantage  to  the  natural  man  to  be 
thrown  out  of  correspondence  with 
this  Environment,  it  is  of  inestimable 
importance  to  the  spiritual  man.  For 
so  long  as  it  is  maintained  the  way  is 
barred  for  a  further  Evolution.  And 
hence  the  condition  necessary  for  the 
further  Evolution  is  that  the  spiritual 
be  released  from  the  natural.  That  is 
to  say,  the  condition  of  the  further 
Evolution  is  Death. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Eternal  Life.” 

Beformits* 

How  pardonable,  surely,  the  im¬ 
patience  of  deformity  with  itself,  of  a 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


71 


consciously  despicable  character  stand¬ 
ing  before  Christ,  wondering,  yearn¬ 
ing,  hungering,  to  be  like  that  ! 

The  Changed  Life . 

Regeneration. 

The  punishment  of  degeneration  is 
simply  degeneration — the  loss  of  func¬ 
tions,  the  decay  of  organs,  the  atrophy 
of  the  spiritual  nature. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Parasitism.” 

Development 

The  development  of  any  organism 
in  any  direction  is  dependent  on  its 
environment.  A  living  cell  cut  off 
from  air  will  die.  A  seed-germ  apart 
from  moisture  and  an  appropriate  tem¬ 
perature  will  make  the  ground  its 


72 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


grave  for  centuries.  Human  nature, 
likewise,  is  subject  to  similar  condi¬ 
tions.  It  can  only  develop  in  pres¬ 
ence  of  its  Environment.  No  matter 
what  its  possibilities  may  be,  no  mat¬ 
ter  what  seeds  of  thought  or  virtue, 
what  germs  of  genius  or  of  art,  lie 
latent  in  its  breast,  until  the  appro¬ 
priate  Environment  present  itself  the 
correspondence  is  denied,  the  develop¬ 
ment  discouraged,  the  most  splendid 
possibilities  of  life  remain  unrealized, 
and  thought  and  virtue,  genius  and 
art,  are  dead. 

Natural  Law  :  “Death.” 

Difficulties, 

Talking  about  difficulties,  as  a 
rule,  only  aggravates  them.  Entire 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


73 


satisfaction  to  the  intellect  is  unattain¬ 
able  about  any  of  the  greater  prob¬ 
lems,  and  if  you  try  to  get  to  the 
bottom  of  them  by  argument,  there 
is  no  bottom  there  ;  and  therefore 
you  make  the  matter  worse. 

How  to  Learn  How . 

Disease  a nfc  Deatb* 

In  the  natural  world  it  only  requires 
a  single  vital  correspondence  of  the 
body  to  be  out  of  order  to  ensure 
death.  It  is  not  necessary  to  have 
consumption,  diabetes,  and  an  aneur¬ 
ism  to  bring  the  body  to  the  grave 
if  it  have  heart  disease.  He  who  is 
fatally  diseased  in  one  organ  neces¬ 
sarily  pays  the  penalty  with  his  life, 


74 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


though  all  the  others  be  in  perfect 
health.  And  such,  likewise,  are  the 
mysterious  unity  and  correlation  of 
functions  in  the  spiritual  organism 
that  the  disease  of  one  member  may 
involve  the  ruin  of  the  whole. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Mortification. ” 

Sanctity  is  in  character,  and  not 
in  moods;  Divinity  in  onr  own  plain, 
calm  humanity,  and  in  no  mystic 
rapture  of  the  soul. 

The  Changed  Life . 

Doubt  to  be  flMttefc. 

Do  you  sometimes  feel  yourself 
thinking  unkind  things  about  your 
fellow-students  who  have  intellectual 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


75 


difficulty?  I  know  how  hard  it  is 
always  to  feel  sympathy  and  toler¬ 
ation  for  them,  but  we  must  address 
ourselves  to  that  most  carefully  and 
most  religiously.  If  my  brother  is 
short-sighted,  I  must  not  abuse  him 
or  speak  against  him;  I  must  pity 
him,  and  if  possible  try  to  improve 
his  sight  or  to  make  things  that  he  is 
to  look  at  so  bright  that  he  cannot 
help  seeing.  But  never  let  us  think 
evil  of  men  who  do  not  see  as  we  do. 
From  the  bottom  of  our  hearts  let  us 
pity  them,  and  let  us  take  them  by 
the  hand  and  spend  time  and  thought 
over  them,  and  try  to  lead  them  to 
the  true  light. 


How  to  Learn  How. 


76  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


H>oubt  anb  TUnbeUef, 

Christ  never  failed  to  distinguish 
between  doubt  and  unbelief.  Doubt 
is  can'  t  believe ;  unbelief  is  won'  t  be¬ 
lieve.  Doubt  is  honesty ;  unbelief  is 
obstinacy.  Doubt  is  looking  for 
light ;  unbelief  is  content  with  dark¬ 
ness. 

How  to  Learn  How . 


SHvarfeb  Souls, 

We  have  already  admitted  that  he 
who  knows  not  God  mav  not  be  a 

j 

monster ;  we  cannot  say  he  will  not 
be  a  dwarf.  This  precisely,  and  on 
perfectly  natural  principles,  is  what 
he  must  be.  You  can  dwarf  a  soul 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


77 


just  as  you  can  dwarf  a  plant,  by  de¬ 
priving  it  of  a  full  Environment. 

Natural  Law:  “  Death.” 

Wr\Q. 

Dying  is  that  break-down  in  an 
organism  which  throws  it  out  of  cor¬ 
respondence  with  some  necessary  part 
of  the  environment.  Death  is  the  re¬ 
sult  produced  —  the  want  of  corre¬ 
spondence.  We  do  not  say  that  this 
is  all  that  is  involved.  But  this  is  the 
root-idea  of  Death — failure  to  adjust 
internal  relations  to  external  relations, 
failure  to  repair  the  broken  inward 
connection  sufficiently  to  enable  it  to 
correspond  again  with  the  old  sur¬ 
roundings. 

Natural  Law:  “Death.” 


I 


78 


MY  POINT  OP  VIEW. 


Ube  JEartbb?  flMnb* 

This  earthly  mind  may  be  of  noble 
calibre,  enriched  by  culture,  high- 
toned,  virtuous,  and  pure.  But  if  it 
know  not  God?  What  though  its 
correspondences  reach  to  the  stars  of 
heaven  or  grasp  the  magnitudes  of 
Time  and  Space  ?  The  stars  of  heav¬ 
en  are  not  heaven.  Space  is  not  God. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Death.” 

Easp. 

The  well-defined  spiritual  life  is 
not  only  the  highest  life,  but  it  is 
also  the  most  easily  lived. 


Natural  Law  :  “  Mortification.” 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


79 


'  1  -  . — ■  - 

JEffcrt 

A  religion  of  effortless  adoration 
may  be  a  religion  for  an  angel,  but 
never  for  a  man.  Not  in  the  contem¬ 
plative,  but  in  the  active,  lies  true 
hope  ;  not  in  rapture,  but  in  reality, 
lies  true  life  ;  not  in  the  realm  of 
ideals,  but  among  tangible  things,  is 
man’s  sanctification  wrought. 

The  Changed  Life . 

Eloquence  without  3Loue. 

What  a  noble  gift  it  is,  the  power 
of  playing  upon  the  souls  and  wills 
of  men,  and  rousing  them  to  lofty 
purposes  and  holy  deeds  !  Paul  says, 
“If  I  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men 


8o 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


and  of  angels,  and  have  not  love,  I 
am  become  as  sounding  brass,  or  a 
tinkling  cymbal.”  And  we  all  know 
why.  We  have  all  felt  the  brazen¬ 
ness  of  words  without  emotion,  the 
hollowness,  the  unaccountable  unper¬ 
suasiveness,  of  eloquence  behind 
which  lies  no  Love. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


Environment* 

All  knowledge  lies  in  Environ¬ 
ment.  When  I  want  to  know  about 
minerals  I  go  to  minerals.  When  I 
want  to  know  about  flowers  I  go  to 
flowers.  And  they  tell  me.  In  their 
own  way  they  speak  to  me,  each  in 
its  own  way,  and  each  for  itself — not 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


8l 


the  mineral  for  the  flower,  which  is 
impossible,  nor  the  flower  for  the 
mineral,  which  is  also  impossible.  So 
if  I  want  to  know  about  Man,  I  go  to 
his  part  of  the  Environment.  And 
he  tells  me  about  himself ;  not  as  the 
plant  or  the  mineral,  for  he  is  neither, 
but  in  his  own  way.  And  if  I  want 
to  know  about  God,  I  go  to  His  part 
of  the  Environment.  And  He  tells 
me  about  Himself,  not  as  a  Man,  for 
He  is  not  Man,  but  in  His  own  way. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Eternal  Life.” 

Environment :  Its  jf unction. 

The  great  function  of  Environment 
is  not  to  modify,  but  to  sustain.  In 
sustaining  life,  it  is  true,  it  modifies. 


82 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


But  the  latter  influence  is  incidental, 
the  former  essential.  Our  Environ¬ 
ment  is  that  in  which  we  live  and 
move  and  have  our  being.  Without 
it  we  should  neither  live  nor  move  nor 
have  any  being.  In  the  organism  lies 
the  principle  of  life  ;  in  the  Environ¬ 
ment  are  the  conditions  of  life.  With¬ 
out  the  fulfilment  of  these  conditions, 
which  are  wholly  supplied  by  Environ¬ 
ment,  there  can  be  no  life.  An  organ¬ 
ism  in  itself  is  but  a  part ;  Nature  is 
its  complement.  Alone,  cut  off  from 
its  surroundings,  it  is  not.  Alone,  cut 
off  from  my  surroundings,  I  am  not — 
physically  I  am  not.  I  am  only  as  I  am 
sustained.  I  continue  only  as  I  receive. 
My  Environment  may  modify  me,  but 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


83 


it  has  first  to  keep  me.  And  all  the  time 
its  secret  transforming  power  is  indirect¬ 
ly  moulding  body  and  mind  it  is  directly 
moving  in  the  more  open  task  of  min¬ 
istering  to  my  myriad  wants,  and  from 
hour  to  hour  sustaining  life  itself. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Environment.” 

Whenever  you  attempt  a  good 
work  you  will  find  other  men  doing 
the  same  kind  of  work,  and  probably 
doing  it  better.  Envy  them  not. 
Envy  is  a  feeling  of  ill-will  to  those 
who  are  in  the  same  line  as  ourselves, 
a  spirit  of  covetousness  and  detraction. 
How  little  Christian  work  even  is  a 
protection  against  un-Christian  feel¬ 
ing  !  That  most  despicable  of  all  the 


S4 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


unworthy  moods  which  cloud  a  Chris¬ 
tian’s  soul  assuredly  waits  for  us  on 
the  threshold  of  every  work,  unless 
we  are  fortified  with  this  grace  of 
magnanimity.  Only  one  thing  truly 
need  the  Christian  envy — the  large, 
rich,  generous  soul  which  “envieth 
not. 5  ’ 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World, 

JEternal  %itc:  fits  Solution* 

To  Christianity,  u  he  that  hath  the 
Son  of  God  hath  Life,  and  he  that 
hath  not  the  Son  hath  not  Life.” 
This,  as  we  take  it,  defines  the  corre¬ 
spondence  which  is  to  bridge  the  grave. 
This  is  the  clue  to  the  nature  of  the 
Life  that  lies  at  the  back  of  the  spirit¬ 
ual  organism.  And  this  is  the  true 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


85 


solution  of  the  mystery  of  Eternal 
Eife. 

Natural  Law:  “  Eternal  Life.” 

Eternity 

In  the  vocabulary  of  Science,  Eter¬ 
nity  is  only  the  fraction  of  a  word.  It 
means  mere  everlastingness.  To  Re¬ 
ligion,  on  the  other  hand,  Eternity 
has  little  to  do  with  time.  To  corre¬ 
spond  with  the  God  of  Science,  the 
Eternal  Unknowable,  would  be  ever¬ 
lasting  existence  ;  to  correspond  with 
“the  true  God  and  Jesus  Christ’5  is 
Eternal  Life.  The  quality  of  the 
Eternal  Life  alone  makes  the  heaven  ; 
mere  everlastingness  might  be  no 
boon. 

*  Natural  Law  :  “  Eternal  Life.” 


86 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


E\>er£=t>as  Xtfe. 

The  want  of  connection  between 
the  great  words  of  religion  and  every¬ 
day  life  has  bewildered  and  discouraged 
all  of  us. 

Pax  V obis  cum. 

Evolution :  TKUbat  is  1ft  ? 

“What  about  evolution?  How 
am  I  to  reconcile  my  religion,  or  any 
religion,  with  the  doctrine  of  evolu¬ 
tion?”  That  upsets  more  men  than 
perhaps  anything  else  at  the  present 
hour.  How  would  you  deal  with  it? 
I  would  say  to  a  man  that  Christianity 
is  the  further  evolution.  I  don’t 
know  any  better  definition  than  that. 
It  is  the  further  evolution — the  higher 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


87 


evolution.  I  don’t  start  with  him  to 
attack  evolution.  I  don’t  start  with 
him  to  defend  it.  I  destroy  by  fulfill¬ 
ing  it.  I  take  him  at  his  own  terms. 
He  says  evolution  is  that  which  pushes 
the  man  on  from  the  simple  to  the 
complex,  from  the  lower  to  the  higher. 
Very  well  ;  that  is  what  Christianity 
does.  It  pushes  the  man  farther  on. 
It  takes  him  where  nature  has  left 
him,  and  carries  him  on  to  heights 
which  on  the  plane  of  nature  he  could 
never  reach.  That  is  evolution. 

How  to  Learn  How. 

Evolution,  IRatural  anO  Spiritual. 

As  the  biologist  runs  his  eye  over 
the  long  Ascent  of  Life  he  sees  the 


88 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


lowest  forms  of  animals  develop  in  an 
hour ;  the  next  above  these  reach 
maturity  in  a  day  ;  those  higher  still 
take  weeks  or  months  to  perfect  ;  but 
the  few  at  the  top  demand  the  long  ex¬ 
periment  of  years.  If  a  child  and  an 
ape  are  born  on  the  same  day,  the  last 
will  be  in  full  possession  of  its  facul¬ 
ties  and  doing  the  active  work  of  life 
before  the  child  has  left  its  cradle. 
Life  is  the  cradle  of  eternity.  As  the 
man  is  to  the  animal  in  the  slowness 
of  his  evolution,  so  is  the  spiritual 
man  to  the  natural  man.  Founda¬ 
tions  which  have  to  bear  the  weight 
of  an  eternal  life  must  be  surely  laid. 
Character  is  to  wear  for  ever  ;  who 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


89 


will  wonder  or  grudge  that  it  cannot 
be  developed  in  a  day  ? 

The  Changed  Life 

j 

^Evolution:  fits  ^future* 

IT  is  perhaps  impossible,  with  such 
faculties  as  we  now  possess,  to  imag¬ 
ine  Evolution  with  a  future  as  great 
as  its  past.  So  stupendous  is  the  de¬ 
velopment  from  the  atom  to  the  man 
that  no  point  can  be  fixed  in  the  fu¬ 
ture  as  distant  from  what  man  is  now 
as  he  is  from  the  atom.  But  it  has 
been  given  to  Christianity  to  disclose 
the  lines  of  a  further  Evolution. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Classification.” 

Evolution  ‘^Universal. 

Evolution  being  found  in  so  many 
different  sciences,  the  likelihood  is 


90 


MY  POINT  OF  VIF/W. 


that  it  is  a  universal  principle.  And 
there  is  no  presumption  whatever 
against  this  Law  and  many  others  be¬ 
ing  excluded  from  the  domain  of  the 
spiritual  life. 

Natural  Law. 

Eraageration, 

It  will  never  do  to  exaggerate  one 
truth  at  the  expense  of  another  ;  and 
a  truth  may  be  turned  into  a  falsehood 
very,  very  easily,  by  simply  being 
either  too  much  enlarged  or  too  much 
diminished. 

How  to  Learn  How. 

facts. 

The  great  God  of  science  at  the 
present  time  is  a  fact.  It  works  with 
facts.  Its  cry  is  “Give  me  facts!” 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


91 


Found  anything  you  like  upon  facts 
and  we  will  believe  it.  The  Spirit  of 
Christ  was  the  scientific  spirit.  He 
founded  his  religion  upon  facts,  and 
He  asked  all  men  to  found  their  relig¬ 
ion  upon  facts. 

How  to  Learn  How. 

IFattb  anb  IReason. 

Faith  is  never  opposed  to  reason 
in  the  New  Testament ;  it  is  opposed 
to  sight. 

How  to  Learn  How . 

jfex>er=3erms. 

It  is  now  known  that  the  human 
body  acts  toward  certain  fever-germs 
as  a  sort  of  soil.  The  man  whose 
blood  is  pure  has  nothing  to  fear.  So 
he  whose  spirit  is  purified  and  sweet- 


92 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


ened  becomes  proof  against  these 
germs  of  sin.  “Anger,  wrath,  mal¬ 
ice,  and  railing”  in  such  a  soil  can 
find  no  root. 

Natural  Law:  “  Mortification.” 

3f  oo&* 

To  sustain  life,  physical,  mental, 
moral,  or  spiritual,  some  sort  of  food 
is  essential.  To  secure  an  adequate 
supply  each  organism  also  is  provided 
with  special  and  appropriate  faculties. 
But  the  final  gain  to  the  organism 
does  not  depend  so  much  on  the 
actual  amount  of  food  procured  as  on 
the  exercise  required  to  obtain  it.  In 
one  sense  the  exercise  is  only  a  means 
to  an  end,  namely,  the  finding  food; 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


93 


but  in  another  and  equally  real  sense 
the  exercise  is  the  end,  the  food  the 
means  to  attain  that.  Neither  is  of 
permanent  use  without  the  other,  but 
the  correlation  between  them  is  so 
intimate  that  it  were  idle  to  say  that 
one  is  more  necessary  than  the  other. 
Without  food  exercise  is  impossible, 
but  without  exercise  food  is  useless. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Parasitism/ ’ 

friendship. 

Friendship  is  the  nearest  thing  we 
know  to  what  religion  is.  God  is 
love.  And  to  make  religion  akin  to 
friendship  is  simply  to  give  it  the 
highest  expression  conceivable  by 


man. 


The  Changed  Life . 


94 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


3Fun&amental  principle* 

We  never  know  how  little  we  have 
learned  of  the  fundamental  principle 
of  Christianity  till  we  discover  how 
much  we  are  all  bent  on  supplement¬ 
ing  God’s  free  grace. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Growth.” 

Generation  not  Spontaneous* 

A  thousand  modern  pulpits  every 
seventh  day  are  preaching  the  doc¬ 
trine  of  vSpontaneous  Generation. 
The  finest  and  best  of  recent  poetry 
is  colored  with  this  same  error.  Spon¬ 
taneous  Generation  is  the  leading 
theology  of  the  modern  religious  or 
irreligious  novel;  and  much  of  the 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


95 


most  serious  and  cultured  writing 
of  the  day  devotes  itself  to  earnest 
preaching  of  this  impossible  gospel. 
The  current  conception  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  religion,  in  short — the  conception 
which  is  held  not  only  popularly,  but 
by  men  of  culture — is  founded  upon 
a  view  of  its  origin  which,  if  it  were 
true,  would  render  the  whole  scheme 
abortive. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Biogenesis.” 


Ube  (Bentleman. 

Carlyle  said  of  Robert  Burns  that 
there  was  no  truer  gentleman  in 
Europe  than  the  ploughman-poet.  It 
was  because  he  loved  everything — the 


96  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


mouse,  and  the  daisy,  and  all  the 
things,  great  and  small,  that  God 
had  made.  So  with  this  simple  pass¬ 
port  he  could  mingle  with  any  society, 
and  enter  courts  and  palaces  from  his 
little  cottage  on  the  banks  of  the  Ayr. 
You  know  the  meaning  of  the  word 
4  4  gentleman.  ’  ’  It  means  a  gentle  man 
— a  man  who  does  things  gently,  with 
love.  And  that  is  the  whole  art  and 
mystery  of  it.  The  gentle  man  can¬ 
not  in  the  nature  of  things  do  an  un¬ 
gentle,  an  ungentlemanly,  thing. 
The  ungentle  soul,  the  inconsiderate, 
unsympathetic  nature,  cannot  do  any¬ 
thing  else.  4  4  Love  doth  not  behave 
itself  unseemly.” 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World, 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


97 


(Bob  tfrte\ntaMe. 

To  every  man  who  truly  studies 
Nature  there  is  a  God.  Call  him  by 
whatever  name — a  Creator,  a  Supreme 
Being,  a  Great  First  Cause,  a  Power 
that  makes  for  Righteousness — Sci¬ 
ence  has  a  God;  and  he  who  believes 
in  this,  in  spite  of  all  protest,  possesses 
a  theology. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Death.” 

(Bob’s  Circle. 

God  is  not  confined  to  the  outermost 
circle  of  environment ;  He  lives  and 
moves  and  has  His  being  in  the  whole. 
Those  who  only  seek  Him  in  the 

further  zone  can  only  find  a  part. 

D 


98  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


The  Christian  who  knows  not  God  in 
Nature,  who  does  not,  that  is  to  say, 
correspond  with  the  whole  environ¬ 
ment,  most  certainly  is  partially  dead. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Death.” 

0o&  tbe  Urue  Environment 

1]he  true  environment  of  the  moral 
life  is  God.  Here  conscience  wakes. 
Here  kindles  love.  Duty  here  be¬ 
comes  heroic,  and  that  righteousness 
begins  to  live  which  alone  is  to  live 
for  ever.  But  if  this  atmosphere  is 
not,  the  dwarfed  soul  must  perish  for 
mere  want  of  its  native  air.  And  its 
death  is  a  strictly  natural  death.  It 
is  not  an  exceptional  judgment  upon 
Atheism.  In  the  same  circumstances, 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


99 


in  the  same  averted  relation  to  their 
environment,  the  poet,  the  musician, 
the  artist,  would  alike  perish  to  poetry, 
to  music,  and  to  art.  Every  environ¬ 
ment  is  a  cause.  Its  effect  upon  me 
is  exactly  proportionate  to  my  corre¬ 
spondence  with  it.  If  I  correspond 
with  part  of  it,  part  of  myself  is  in¬ 
fluenced.  If  I  correspond  with  more, 
more  of  myself  is  influenced ;  if  with 
all,  all  is  influenced.  If  I  correspond 
with  the  world,  I  become  worldly ;  if 
with  God,  I  become  Divine. 

Natural  Law:  “  Death.” 

<5ot>  in  mature. 

B  IBs  i1 

We  have  not  said,  or  implied,  that 
there  is  not  a  God  of  Nature.  We 


r 


IOO 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


have  not  affirmed  that  there  is  no 
Natural  Religion.  We  are  assured 
there  is.  We  are  even  assured  that 
without  a  Religion  of  Nature,  Religion 
is  only  half  complete  ;  that  without  a 
God  of  Nature,  the  God  of  Revelation 
is  only  half  intelligible  and  only  par¬ 
tially  known.  God  is  not  confined  to 
the  outermost  circle  of  environment. 
He  lives  and  moves  and  has  His  being 
in  the  whole. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Death.” 

(SoMessness, 

It  has  never  been  as  clear  to  us  that 
without  God  the  soul  will  die  as  that 
without  food  the  body  will  perish. 


Natural  Law  :  “  Environment.” 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


IOI 


<3rat>attons. 

We  all,  reflecting  as  a  mirror  the 
character  of  Christ,  are  transformed 
into  the  same  Image  from  character  to 
character — from  a  poor  character  to  a 
better  one,  from  a  better  one  to  one  a 
little  better  still,  from  that  to  one  still 
more  complete — until,  by  slow  degrees, 
the  Perfect  Image  is  attained.  Here 
the  solution  of  the  problem  of  sanctifi¬ 
cation  is  compressed  into  a  sentence  : 
Reflect  the  character  of  Christ  and 
you  will  become  like  Christ. 

The  Changed  Life . 


102 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


Oranfcmotbers, 

Boys,  if  you  are  going  to  be  Chris¬ 
tians,  be  Christians  as  boys,  and  not 
as  your  grandmothers.  A  grand¬ 
mother  has  to  be  a  Christian  as  a 
grandmother,  and  that  is  the  right 
and  the  beautiful  thing  for  her  ;  but 
if  you  cannot  read  your  Bible  by  the 
hour  as  your  grandmother  can,  or  de¬ 
light  in  meetings  as  she  can,  don’t 
think  you  are  necessarily  a  bad  boy. 
When  you  are  your  grandmother’s 
age  you  will  have  your  grandmother’s 
kind  of  religion. 


“First  r 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW.  IO3 


Gravitation* 

When  Nature  yielded  to  Newton 
her  great  secret,  gravitation  was  felt 
to  be  no  greater  as  a  fact  in  itself 
than  as  a  revelation  that  Law  was 
Fact. 

Natural  Law:  “Preface.” 


Great  /ID en* 

How  do  I  know  Shakespeare  or 
Dante?  By  communing  with  their 
words  and  thoughts.  Many  men 
know  Dante  better  than  their  own 
fathers.  He  influences  them  more. 
As  a  spiritual  presence  he  is  more 
near  to  them,  as  a  spiritual  force  more 
real.  Is  there  any  reason  why  a 


io4 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


greater  than  Shakespeare  or  Dante, 
who  also  walked  this  earth,  who  left 
great  words  behind  Him,  who  has 
great  works  everywhere  in  the  world 
now,  should  not  also  instruct,  inspire, 
and  mould  the  characters  of  men  ? 

The  Changed  Life . 


Great  Urutbs* 

The  greatest  truths  are  always  the 
most  loosely  held. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Biogenesis.” 

(Browtb  (Srabual. 

v 

The  gradualness  of  growth  is  a 
characteristic  which  strikes  the  sim¬ 
plest  observer.  Long  before  the  word 
Evolution  was  coined  Christ  applied 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW.  105 

it  in  this  very  connection — “  First  the 
blade,  then  the  ear,  then  the  full  corn 
in  the  ear.”  It  is  well  known  also 
to  those  who  study  the  parables  of 
Nature  that  there  is  an  ascending 
scale  of  slowness  as  we  rise  in  the 
scale  of  Life.  Growth  is  most  grad¬ 
ual  in  the  highest  forms.  Man  attains 
his  maturity  after  a  score  of  years  ; 
the  monad  completes  its  humble  cycle 
in  a  day.  What  wonder  if  develop¬ 
ment  be  tardy  in  the  Creature  of  Eter- 
nitv?  A  Christian’s  sun  has  some- 

j 

times  set,  and  a  critical  world  has 
seen  as  yet  no  corn  in  the  ear.  As 
yet?  “As  yet,”  in  this  long  Life, 
has  not  begun.  Grant  him  the  years 
proportionate  to  his  place  in  the  scale 


io6 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


of  Life.  ‘  ‘  The  time  of  harvest  is 
not  yet.  ’  ’ 

Natural  Law . 


(Browtb :  Hts  Gonbitions* 

The  conditions  of  growth,  then, 
and  the  inward  principle  of  growth 
being  both  supplied  by  Nature,  the 
thing  man  has  to  do,  the  little  junc¬ 
tion  left  for  him  to  complete,  is  to  ap¬ 
ply  the  one  to  the  other.  He  manu¬ 
factures  nothing  ;  he  earns  nothing  ; 
he  need  be  anxious  for  nothing ;  his 
one  duty  is  to  be  in  these  conditions, 
to  abide  in  them,  to  allow  grace  to 
play  over  him,  to  be  still  therein,  and 
know  that  this  is  God. 


Natural  Law  :  “  Growth.” 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


107 


6rowtb  IRoiseless. 

Do  not  think  that  nothing  is  hap¬ 
pening  because  you  do  not  see  your¬ 
self  grow  or  hear  the  whirr  of  the  ma¬ 
chinery.  All  great  things  grow  noise¬ 
lessly.  You  can  see  a  mushroom 
grow,  but  never  a  child. 

The  Changed  Life. 


©ullelessness. 

Guilelessness  is  the  grace  for  sus¬ 
picious  people.  And  the  possession 
of  it  is  the  great  secret  of  personal 
influence.  You  will  find,  if  you 
think  for  a  moment,  that  the  people 
who  influence  you  are  people  who 
believe  in  you.  In  an  atmosphere 


io8 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


of  suspicion  men  shrivel  up;  but  in 
that  atmosphere  they  expand,  and 
find  encouragement  and  educative 
fellowship.  It  is  a  wonderful  thing 
that  here  and  there  in  this  hard, 
uncharitable  world  there  should  still 
be  left  a  few  rare  souls  who  think  no 
evil. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


toatrefc  of  Xtfe, 

Why  does  Christ  say,  “  Hate  life”  ? 
Does  He  mean  that  life  is  a  sin  ?  No. 
Life  is  not  a  sin.  Still,  He  says  we 
must  hate  it.  But  we  must  live.  Why 
should  we  hate  what  we  must  do  ?  For 
this  reason:  Life  is  not  a  sin,  but  the 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW.  IO9 

love  of  life  may  be  a  sin.  And  the 
best  way  not  to  love  life  is  to  hate  it. 
Is  it  a  sin,  then,  to  love  life?  Not 
a  sin  exactly,  but  a  mistake.  It  is 
a  sin  to  love  some  life,  a  mistake  to 
love  the  rest.  Because  that  love  is 
lost.  All  that  is  lavished  on  it  is 
lost.  Christ  does  not  say  it  is  wrong 
to  love  life.  He  simply  says  it  is  loss. 
Each  man  has  only  a  certain  amount 
of  life,  of  time,  of  attention  —  a 
definite,  measurable  quantity.  If  he 
gives  any  of  it  to  this  life  solely,  it  is 
wasted.  Therefore  Christ  says,  Hate 
life,  limit  life,  lest  you  steal  your  love 
for  it  from  something  that  deserves  it 
more. 

Natural  Law:  “  Mortification.” 


no 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


Ibappiness  Xtes  in  Giving. 

The  most  obvious  lesson  in  Christ’s 
teaching  is  that  there  is  no  happiness 
in  having  and  getting  anything,  but 
only  in  giving.  And  half  the  world 
is  on  the  wrong  scent  in  pursuit  of 
happiness.  They  think  it  consists  in 
having  and  getting,  and  in  being 
served  by  others.  It  consists  in  giv¬ 
ing,  and  in  serving  others.  He  that 
would  be  great  among  you,  said  Christ, 
let  him  serve.  He  that  would  be 
happy,  let  him  remember  that  there 
is  but  one  way — it  is  more  blessed,  it 
is  more  happy,  to  give  than  to  re¬ 
ceive. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


Ill 


Ibapptness  not  a  Ofoystcvy. 

There  is  no  mystery  about  Happi¬ 
ness  whatever.  Put  in  the  right  in¬ 
gredients  and  it  must  come  out.  He 
that  abideth  in  Him  will  bring  forth 
much  fruit;  and  bringing  forth  much 
fruit  is  Happiness.  The  infallible 
receipt  for  Happiness,  then,  is  to  do 
good;  and  the  infallible  receipt  for 
doing  good  is  to  abide  in  Christ. 

Pax  Vobiscum . 


Ibarmoits. 

It  is  clear  that  a  remarkable  har¬ 
mony  exists  here  between  the  Organic 
World  as  arranged  by  Science  and  the 


1 12 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


Spiritual  World  as  arranged  by  Scrip¬ 
ture.  We  find  one  great  Law  guard¬ 
ing  tlie  thresholds  of  both  worlds, 
securing  that  entrance  from  a  lower 
sphere  shall  only  take  place  by  a  direct 
regenerating  act,  and  that  emanating 
from  the  world  next  in  order  above. 
There  are  not  two  laws  of  Biogenesis, 
one  for  the  natural,  the  other  for  the 
Spiritual ;  one  law  is  for  both.  Wher¬ 
ever  there  is  Life,  Life  of  any  kind, 
this  same  law  holds.  The  analogy, 
therefore,  is  only  among  the  phe¬ 
nomena;  between  laws  there  is  no 
analogy — there  is  Continuity. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Biogenesis.” 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


JI3 


Ibealtng. 

IT  is  the  beautiful  work  of  Chris¬ 
tianity  everywhere  to  adjust  the  bur¬ 
den  of  life  to  those  who  bear  it,  aud 
them  to  it.  It  has  a  perfectly  mirac¬ 
ulous  gift  of  healing.  Without  doing 

l 

any  violence  to  human  nature  it  sets 
it  right  with  life,  harmonizing  it  with 
all  surrounding  things,  and  restoring 
those  who  are  jaded  with  the  fatigue 
and  dust  of  the  world  to  a  new  grace 
of  living. 

Pax  Vobiscum. 

Deaven. 

l 

Whatever  hopes  of  a  “heaven” 
a  neglected  soul  may  have  can  be 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


114 

shown  to  be  an  ignorant  and  delusive 
dream.  How  is  the  soul  to  escape  to 

Jk. 

heaven  if  it  has  neglected  for  a  life¬ 
time  the  means  of  escape  from  the 
world  and  self?  And  where  is  the 
capacity  for  heaven  to  come  from  if  it 
be  not  developed  on  earth?  Where, 
indeed,  is  even  the  smallest  spiritual 
appreciation  of  God  and  heaven  to 
come  from  when  so  little  of  spirit¬ 
uality  has  ever  been  known  or  man¬ 
ifested  here  ?  If  every  God- ward 
aspiration  of  the  soul  has  been  allowed 
to  become  extinct,  and  every  inlet  that 
was  open  to  heaven  to  be  choked,  and 
every  talent  for  religious  love  and  trust 
to  have  been  persistently  neglected 
and  ignored,  where  are  the  faculties 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


IJ5 

to  come  from  that  would  ever  find  the 
faintest  relish  in  such  things  as  God 
and  heaven  give  ? 

Nattiral  Law  :  “  Degeneration. v 


1fxce&it£* 

What  Heredity  has  to  do  for  us  is 
determined  outside  ourselves.  No 
man  can  select  his  own  parents.  But 
every  man  to  some  extent  can  choose 
his  own  Environment.  His  relation 
to  it,  however  largely  determined  by 
Heredity  in  the  first  instance,  is  always 
open  to  alteration.  And  so  great  is 
his  control  over  Environment,  and  so 
radical  its  influence  over  him,  that  he 
can  so  direct  it  as  either  to  undo, 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


Il6 

modify,  perpetuate,  or  intensify  the 
earlier  hereditary  influence  within 
certain  limits. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Environment.” 

/ 

tberesp. 

Heresy  is  truth  in  the  making, 
and  doubt  is  the  prelude  of  know¬ 
ledge. 

How  to  Learn  How . 

limitation. 

Imitation  is  mechanical,  reflec¬ 
tion  organic.  The  one  is  occasional, 
the  other  habitual.  In  the  one  case 
man  comes  to  God  and  imitates  him  ; 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


II 7 


in  the  other  God  comes  to  man  and 
imprints  himself  upon  him. 

The  Changed  Life . 


ITmmortaUts* 

No  truth  of  Christianity  has  been 
more  ignorantly  or  wilfully  travestied 
than  the  doctrine  of  Immortality. 
The  popular  idea,  in  spite  of  a  hundred 
protests,  is  that  Eternal  Life  is  to  live 
for  ever.  A  single  glance  at  the  locus 
classicus  might  have  made  this  error 
impossible.  There  we  are  told  that 
Life  Eternal  is  not  to  live.  This  is 
Eife  Eternal — to  know .  And  yet — 
and  it  is  a  notorious  instance  of  the 
fact  that  men  who  are  opposed  to  Re- 


Ii8 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


ligion  will  take  their  conceptions  of 
its  profoundest  truths  from  mere  vulgar 
perversions — this  view  still  represents 
to  many  cultivated  men  the  Scriptural 
doctrine  of  Eternal  Life.  From  time 
to  time  the  taunt  is  thrown  at  Re¬ 
ligion,  not  unseldom  from  lips  which 
Science  ought  to  have  taught  more 
caution,  that  the  Future  Life  of  Chris¬ 
tianity  is  simply  a  prolonged  existence, 
an  eternal  monotony,  a  blind  and  in¬ 
definite  continuance  of  being.  The 
Bible  never  could  commit  itself  to  any 
such  platitudes,  nor  could  Christianity 
ever  offer  to  the  world  a  hope  so  color¬ 
less. 


Natural  Law  :  “  Eternal  Life.” 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


XI9 


Ifmperfectkms  of  tbe  (5obl£, 

The  sneer  at  the  godly  man  for  his 
imperfections  is  ill-judged.  A  blade 
is  a  small  thing.  At  first  it  grows 
very  near  the  earth.  It  is  often  soiled 
and  crushed  and  downtrodden.  But 
it  is  a  living  thing.  That  great  dead 
stone  beside  it  is  more  imposing ;  only 
it  will  never  be  anything  less  than  a 
stone.  But  this  small  blade — it  doth 
not  yet  appear  what  it  shall  be. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Growth.” 

IfmpresseD  forces. 

According  to  the  first  Law  of 
Motion  :  Every  body  continues  in  its 
state  of  rest,  or  of  uniform  motion  in 


120 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


a  straight  line,  except  in  so  far  as  it 
may  be  compelled  by  impressed  forces 
to  change  that  state.  This  is  also  a 
first  law  of  Christianity.  Every  man’s 
character  remains  as  it  is,  or  continues 
in  the  direction  in  which  it  is  going, 
until  it  is  compelled  by  impressed forces 
to  change  that  state. 

The  Changed  Life . 


Ifmprcwemenk 

No  man  can  become  a  saint  in  his 
sleep  ;  and  to  fulfil  the  condition  re¬ 
quired  demands  a  certain  amount  of 
prayer  and  meditation  and  time,  just 
as  improvement  in  any  direction,  bod¬ 
ily  or  mental,  requires  preparation 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW.  12 1 

and  care.  Address  yourselves  to  that 
one  thing ;  at  any  cost  have  this 
transcendent  character  exchanged  for 
yours. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


Inability 

The  doctrine  of  Human  Inability, 
as  the  Church  calls  it,  has  always 
been  objectionable  to  men  who  do 
not  know  themselves. 

Natural  Law:  “  Conformity  to  Type.” 


ifncitement. 

God  has  planned  the  world  to  in¬ 
cite  to  intellectual  activity. 


How  to  Learn  How. 


122 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


— 


llncompleteness* 

Who  has  not  come  to  the  conclu¬ 
sion  that  he  is  but  a  part,  a  fraction 
of  some  larger  whole  ?  Who  does  not 
miss  at  every  turn  of  his  life  an  ab¬ 
sent  God  ?  That  man  is  but  a  part 
he  knows,  for  there  is  room  in  him 
for  more.  That  God  is  the  other  part 
he  feels,  because  at  times  He  satisfies 
his  need.  Who  does  not  tremble 
often  under  that  sicklier  symptom  of 
his  incompleteness,  his  want  of  spirit¬ 
ual  energy,  his  helplessness  with  sin  ? 
But  now  he  understands  both — the 
void  in  his  life,  the  powerlessness  of 
his  will.  He  understands  that,  like 
all  other  energy,  spiritual  power  is 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


12 •* 


contained  in  Environment.  He  finds 
here  at  last  the  true  root  of  all  human 
frailty,  emptiness,  nothingness,  sin. 
This  is  why  u  without  Me  ye  can  do 
nothing.”  Powerless  is  the  normal 
state  not  only  of  this  but  of  every 
organism  —  of  every  organism  apart 
from  its  Environment. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Environment.” 

■(Inconsistency. 

The  result  of  copying  Humility 
and  adding  it  on  to  an  otherwise 
worldly  life  is  simply  grotesque. 

The  Changed  Life . 

■(Influence* 

It  is  the  Law  of  Influence  that  we 
become  like  those  whom  we  habitual - 


124 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


ly  adynire:  these  had  become  like 
because  they  habitually  admired. 
Through  all  the  range  of  literature, 
history,  and  biography  this  law  pre¬ 
sides.  Men  are  all  mosaics  of  other 
men.  There  was  a  savor  of  David 
about  Jonathan,  and  a  savor  of  Jona¬ 
than  about  David.  Jean  Valjean,  in 
the  masterpiece  of  Victor  Hugo,  is 
Bishop  Bienvenu  risen  from  the  dead. 
Metempsychosis  is  a  fact. 


The  Changed  Life . 


IFttsanits* 

Suppose  the  case  of  a  man  who  is 
thrown  out  of  correspondence  with  a 
part  of  his  environment  by  some 
physical  infirmity.  Let  it  be  that 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


!2  5 


by  disease  or  accident  he  has  been 
deprived  of  the  use  of  his  ears.  The 
deaf  man,  in  virtue  of  this  imperfec¬ 
tion,  is  thrown  out  of  rapport  with  a 
large  and  well-defined  part  of  the  en¬ 
vironment,  namely,  its  sounds.  With 
regard  to  that  u  external  relation,” 
therefore,  he  is  no  longer  living.  Part 
of  him  may  truly  be  held  to  be  in¬ 
sensible  or  4  4  dead. 5  ’  A  man  who  is 
also  blind  is  thrown  out  of  corre¬ 
spondence  with  another  large  part  of 
his  environment.  The  beauty  of  sea 
and  sky,  the  forms  of  cloud  and  moun¬ 
tain,  the  features  and  gestures  of 
friends,  are  to  him  as  if  they  were 
not.  They  are  there,  solid  and  real, 
but  not  to  him  ;  he  is  still  further 


126 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


u  dead.  ”  Next,  let  it  be  conceived, 
the  subtle  finger  of  cerebral  disease 
lays  hold  of  him.  His  whole  brain 
is  affected,  and  the  sensory  nerves,  the 
medium  of  communication  with  the 
environment,  cease  altogether  to  ac¬ 
quaint  him  with  what  is  doing  in  the 
outside  world.  The  outside  world  is 
still  there,  but  not  to  him  ;  he  is  still 
further  4  (  dead. 5  ’ 

Natural  Law  :  “  Death.” 

flnsptration. 

With  the  inspiration  of  Nature  to 
illuminate  what  the  inspiration  of 
Revelation  has  left  obscure,  heresy 
in  certain  whole  departments  shall 
become  impossible.  With  the  demon- 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW.  12  J 


stration  of  the  naturalness  of  the 
supernatural,  scepticism  even  may 
come  to  be  regarded  as  unscientific. 
And  those  who  have  wrestled  long 
for  a  few  bare  truths  to  ennoble  life 
and  rest  their  souls  in  thinking  of  the 
future  will  not  be  left  in  doubt. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Introduction.” 

intellect. 

Then  comes  a  very  important  part, 
the  intellect,  which  is  one  of  the  most 
useful  servants  of  truth  ;  and  I  need 
not  tell  you  as  students  that  the  intel¬ 
lect  will  have  a  great  deal  to  do  with 
your  reception  of  truth.  I  was  told 
that  it  was  said  at  these  conferences 
last  year  that  a  man  must  crucify  his 


128 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


intellect.  I  venture  to  contradict  the 
gentleman  who  made  that  statement. 
I  am  quite  sure  no  such  statement 
could  ever  have  been  made  in  your 
hearing — that  we  were  to  crucify  our 
intellects.  We  can  make  no  progress 
without  the  full  use  of  all  the  intel¬ 
lectual  powers  that  God  has  endowed 
us  with. 

How  to  Learn  How . 

Unrenttons. 

% 

At  every  workshop  you  will  see,  in 
the  back  yard,  a  heap  of  old  iron,  a 
few  levers,  a  few  cranks,  broken  and 
eaten  with  rust.  Twenty  years  ago 
that  was  the  pride  of  the  city.  Men 
flocked  in  from  the  country  to  see  the 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


129 


great  invention;  now  it  is  superseded, 
its  dav  is  done. 

The  G reate st  Thing  in  the  World, 

3cs :  Dow  Httamefc. 

Where  does  Joy  come  from?  I 
knew  a  Sunday  scholar  whose  con  cep- 

V 

tion  of  Joy  was  that  it  was  a  thing 
made  in  lumps  and  kept  somewhere 
in  Heaven,  and  that  when  people 
prayed  for  it  pieces  were  somehow 
let  down  and  fitted  into  their  souls. 
I  am  not  sure  that  views  as  gross  and 
material  are  not  often  held  by  people 
who  ought  to  be  wiser.  In  reality, 
Joy  is  as  much  a  matter  of  Cause  and 
Effect  as  pain.  No  one  can  get  Joy 

by  merely  asking  for  it.  It  is  one  of 

E 


130 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


the  ripest  fruits  of  the  Christian  life, 
and,  like  all  fruits,  must  be  grown. 

Pax  V obis  cum. 

Judgment  H)a£* 

IT  is  the  Son  of  Man  before  whom 
the  nations  of  the  world  shall  be  gath¬ 
ered.  It  is  in  the  presence  of  Human¬ 
ity  that  we  shall  be  charged.  And 
the  spectacle  itself,  the  mere  sight  of 
it,  will  silently  judge  each  one.  Those 
will  be  there  whom  we  have  met  and 
helped  ;  or  there  the  unpitying  mul¬ 
titude  whom  we  neglected  or  despised. 
No  other  witness  need  be  summoned 
No  other  charge  than  lovelessness 
shall  be  preferred.  Be  not  deceived. 
The  words  which  all  of  us  shall  one 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


131 

day  hear  sound  not  of  theology,  but 
of  life  ;  not  of  churches  and  saints, 
but  of  the  hungry  and  the  poor  ;  not 
of  creeds  and  doctrines,  but  of  shelter 
and  clothing  ;  not  of  Bibles  and  pray¬ 
er-books,  but  of  cups  of  cold  water  in 
the  name  of  Christ 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

iRe^notes. 

Every  character  has  an  inward 
spring.  Let  Christ  be  it.  Every 
action  has  a  keynote.  Let  Christ 
set  it. 

The  Changed  Life . 

fdntmess. 

I  wonder  why  it  is  we  are  not  all 
kinder  than  we  are  ?  How  mnch  the 


132 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


world  needs  it  !  How  easily  it  is 
done  !  How  instantaneously  it  acts  ! 
How  infallibly  it  is  remembered  ! 
How  superabundantly  it  pays  itself 
back  !  For  there  is  no  debtor  in  the 
world  so  honorable,  so  superbly  hon¬ 
orable,  as  Love. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


IRm&ness  of  Christ, 

Have  you  ever  noticed  how  much 
of  Christ’s  life  was  spent  in  doing 
kind  things — in  merely  doing  kind 
things  ?  Run  over  it  with  that  in  view, 
and  you  will  find  that  He  spent  a 
great  proportion  of  His  time  simply 
in  making  people  happy,  in  doing 
good  turns  to  people.  There  is  only 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


133 


one  thing  greater  than  happiness 
in  the  world,  and  that  is  holiness  ; 
and  it  is  not  in  our  keeping ;  but 
what  God  has  put  in  our  power  is 
the  happiness  of  those  about  us,  and 
that  is  largely  to  be  secured  by  our 
being  kind  to  them. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

IRmQ&oms* 

As  a  merely  verbal  matter  the 
identification  of  the  Spiritual  World 
with  what  are  known  to  Science  as 
Kingdoms  necessitates  an  explan¬ 
ation.  The  suggested  relation  of, 
the  Kingdom  of  Christ  to  the  Mineral 
and  Animal  Kingdoms  does  not,  of 
course,  depend  upon  the  accident 


*34 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


that  the  Spiritual  World  is  named 
in  the  sacred  writings  by  the  same 
word.  This  certainly  lends  an  ap¬ 
pearance  of  fancy  to  the  generaliza¬ 
tion,  and  one  feels  tempted  at  first 
to  dismiss  it  with  a  smile.  But,  in 
truth,  it  is  no  mere  play  on  the  word 
Kingdom .  Science  demands  the 
classification  of  every  organism. 
And  here  is  an  organism  of  a  unique 
kind,  a  living,  energetic  spirit,  a  new 
creature  which,  by  an  act  of  gene^ 
ration,  has  been  begotten  of  God. 
Starting  from  the  point  that  the 
spiritual  life  is  to  be  studied  biologi 
cally,  we  must  at  once  proceed,  as  the 
first  step  in  the  scientific  examination 
of  this  organism,  to  enter  it  in  its 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


*35 


appropriate  class.  Now  two  King¬ 
doms,  at  the  present  time,  are  known 
to  Science — the  Inorganic  and  the 
Organic.  It  does  not  belong  to  the 
Inorganic  Kingdom,  because  it  lives. 
It  does  not  belong  to  the  Organic 
Kingdom,  because  it  is  endowed  with 
a  kind  of  Life  infinitely  removed 
from  either  the  vegetable  or  animal. 
Where,  then,  shall  it  be  classed? 
We  are  left  without  an  alternative. 
There  being  no  Kingdom  known  to 
Science  which  can  contain  it,  we 
must  construct  one.  Or,  rather,  we 
must  include  in  the  programme  of 
Science  a  Kingdom  already  con¬ 
structed,  but  the  place  of  which  in 
science  has  not  yet  been  recognized. 


136 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


That  Kingdom  is  the  Kingdom  of 
God \ 

Natural  Law  :  “  Classification. ” 


Ifuna&om  of  <3o&. 

The  kingdom  of  God  is  not  going 
to  religious  meetings  and  hearing 
strange  religious  experiences.  The 
kingdom  of  God  is  doing  what  is 
right — living  at  peace  with  all  men, 
being  filled  with  joy  in  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

“First  !” 

Tknowle&ge, 

The  wisdom  of  the  ancients — where 
is  it  ?  It  is  wholly  gone.  A  school¬ 
boy  to-day  knows  more  than  Sir  Isaac 


MY  POINT  OK  VIEW. 


137 


Newton  knew.  His  knowledge  has 
vanished  away.  You  buy  the  old  edi¬ 
tions  of  the  great  encyclopaedias  for 
a  few  pence.  Their  knowledge  has 
faded  away.  And  all  the  boasted  sci¬ 
ence  and  philosophy  of  this  day  will 
soon  be  old. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


Xanguage. 

The  most  popular  book  in  the  Eng¬ 
lish  tongue  at  the  present  time,  ex¬ 
cept  the  Bible,  is  one  of  Dickens’s 
works,  his  Pickwick  Papers.  It  is 
largely  written  in  the  language  of 
London  street-life,  and  experts  assure 
us  that  in  fifty  years  it  will  be  unin- 


138  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


telligible  to  the  average  English 
reader. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


Xaw* 

The  world,  even  the  religious  world, 
is  governed  by  law.  Character  is 
governed  by  law.  Happiness  is  gov¬ 
erned  by  law.  The  Christian  experi¬ 
ences  are  governed  by  law.  Men,  for¬ 
getting  this,  expect  Rest,  Joy,  Peace, 
Faith,  to  drop  into  their  souls  from 
the  air,  like  snow  or  rain. 

Pax  Vobiscum. 

The  fundamental  conception  of 
Law  is  an  ascertained  working  se¬ 
quence  or  constant  order  among  the 


MY  POINT  OP  VIEW. 


139 


phenomena  of  Nature.  This  impres¬ 
sion  of  Law  as  order  it  is  important 
to  receive  in  its  simplicity,  for  the 
idea  is  often  corrupted  by  having  at¬ 
tached  to  it  erroneous  views  of  cause 
and  effect.  In  its  true  sense  Natural 
Law  predicates  nothing  of  causes. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Introduction.” 

0 

IReigrt  of  Xaw* 

The  Reign  of  Law  has  gradually 
crept  into  every  department  of  Nature, 
transforming  knowledge  everywhere 
into  Science.  The  process  goes  on, 
and  Nature  slowly  appears  to  us  as 
one  great  unity,  until  the  borders  of 
the  Spiritual  World  are  reached. 


Natural  Law  :  “  Introduction.” 


140 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


Xaw,  Natural  an&  Spiritual* 

The  real  problem  I  have  set  myself 
may  be  stated  in  a  sentence.  Is  there 
not  reason  to  believe  that  many  of  the 
Laws  of  the  Spiritual  World,  hitherto 
regarded  as  occupying  an  entirely 
separate  province,  are  simply  the  Laws 
of  the  Natural  World?  Can  we  iden¬ 
tify  the  Natural  Laws,  or  any  one  of 
them,  in  the  spiritual  sphere?  That 
vague  lines  everywhere  run  through 
the  Spiritual  World  is  already  begin¬ 
ning  to  be  recognized.  Is  it  possible 
to  link  them  with  those  great  lines 
running  through  the  visible  universe 
which  we  call  the  Natural  Laws,  or 
are  they  fundamentally  distinct?  In 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


141 

a  word,  Is  the  Supernatural  natural  or 
unnatural  ? 

Natural  Law  :  “  Preface.” 

Xaw  of  IRature* 

There  is  a  sense  of  solidity  about 
a  Taw  of  Nature  which  belongs  to 
nothing  else  in  the  world.  Here,  at 
last,  amid  all  that  is  shifting,  is  one 
thing  sure  ;  one  thing  outside  our¬ 
selves,  unbiassed,  unprejudiced,  unin¬ 
fluenced  by  like  or  dislike,  by  doubt 
or  fear  ;  one  thing  that  holds  on  its 
way  to  me  eternally,  incorruptible, 
and  undefiled.  This,  more  than  any¬ 
thing  else,  makes  one  eager  to  see  the 
Reign  of  Taw  traced  in  the  Spiritual 
Sphere. 


Natural  Law :  “  Preface.” 


142 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


%a\vs  not  Operators. 

Laws  do  not  act  upoti  anything. 
Apparently  it  cannot  be  too  abun¬ 
dantly  emphasized  that  Laws  are  only 
modes  of  operation,  not  themselves 
operators. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Introduction.’’ 


Xife  a  Correspondence. 

To  find  a  new  Environment  again 
and  cultivate  relation  with  it  is  to  find 
a  new  Life.  To  live  is  to  correspond, 
and  to  correspond  is  to  live.  So  much 
is  true  in  Science.  But  it  is  also  true 
in  Religion.  And  it  is  of  great  im¬ 
portance  to  observe  that  to  Religion 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


143 


also  the  conception  of  Life  is  a  corre¬ 
spondence. 

Natural  Law  ;  “  Eternal  Life.” 

%itc  is  ^Definite* 

L/iEK  is  not  one  of  the  homeless 
forces  which  promiscuously  inhabit 
space,  or  which  can  be  gathered  like 
electricity  from  the  clouds  and  dissi¬ 
pated  back  again  into  space.  Life  is 
definite  and  resident  ;  and  Spiritual 
Life  is  not  a  visit  from  a  force,  but  a 
resident  tenant  in  the  soul. 

Natural  Law:  “Introduction.” 

%ife  a  jftne  art. 

WE  grow  up  at  random,  carrying 
into  mature  life  the  merely  animal 


144 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


methods  and  motives  which  we  had 
as  little  children.  And  it  does  not 
occur  to  us  that  all  this  must  be 
changed  ;  that  much  of  it  must  be 
reversed  ;  that  life  is  the  finest  of  the 
Fine  Arts  ;  that  it  has  to  be  learned 
with  life-long  patience,  and  that  the 
years  of  our  pilgrimage  are  all  too 
short  to  master  it  triumphantly. 

Pax  Vobiscum. 

Xtcjbt  a nfc  %ove. 

Light  is  a  something  more  than  the 
sum  of  its  ingredients — a  glowing, 
dazzling,  tremulous  ether.  And  love 
is  something  more  than  all  its  ele¬ 
ments — a  palpitating,  quivering,  sen¬ 
sitive,  living  thing.  By  synthesis  of 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


H5 


all  the  colors  men  can  make  white¬ 
ness,  they  cannot  make  light.  By 
synthesis  of  all  the  virtues  men  can 
make  virtue,  they  cannot  make  love. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


TLbc  Xocfcef* 

There  lived  once  a  young  girl 
whose  perfect  grace  of  character  was 
the  wonder  of  those  who  knew  her. 
She  wore  on  her  neck  a  gold  locket 
which  no  one  was  ever  allowed  to 
open.  One  day,  in  a  moment  of  un¬ 
usual  confidence,  one  of  her  com¬ 
panions  was  allowed  to  touch  its 
spring  and  learn  its  secret.  She  saw 
written  these  words  :  u Whom  having 
not  seeiis  I  love .  ’ '  That  was  the  secret 


146  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


of  her  beautiful  life.  She  had  been 
changed  into  the  Same  Image. 

The  Changed  Life. 


Xongtrtcb 

All  about  us,  Christians  are  wear¬ 
ing  themselves  out  in  trying  to  be  bet¬ 
ter.  The  amount  of  spiritual  longing 
in  the  world — in  the  hearts  of  unnum¬ 
bered  thousands  of  men  and  women 
in  whom  we  should  never  suspect  it; 
among  the  wise  and  thoughtful; 
among  the  young  and  gay,  who 
seldom  assuage  and  never  betray  their 
thirst, — this  is  one  of  the  most  won¬ 
derful  and  touching  facts  of  life.  It 
is  not  more  heat  that  is  needed,  but 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


147 


more  light;  not  more  force,  but  a 
wiser  direction  to  be  given  to  very 
real  energies  already  there. 

Pax  Vo  bis  cum. 


Zfoe  %ost ♦ 

The  Bible  view  is  that  man  is  con¬ 
ceived  in  sin  and  shapen  in  iniquity. 
And  experience  tells  him  that  he  will 
shape  himself  into  further  sin  and 
ever-deepening  iniquity  without  the 
smallest  effort,  without  in  the  least 
intending  it,  and  in  the  most  natural 
way  in  the  world,  if  he  simply  let 
his  life  run.  It  is  on  this  principle 
that,  completing  the  conception,  the 
wicked  are  said  further  in  the  Bible 
to  be  lost.  They  are  not  really  lost 


148  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


as  yet,  but  they  are  on  the  sure  way 
to  it.  The  bias  of  their  lives  is  in 
full  action.  There  is  no  drag  on  any¬ 
where.  The  natural  tendencies  are 
having  it  all  their  own  way;  and 
although  the  victims  may  be  quite 
unconscious  that  all  this  is  going  on, 
it  is  patent  to  every  one  who  con¬ 
siders  even  the  natural  bearings  of 
the  case  that  “the  end  of  these 
things  is  Death.” 

Natural  Law:  “  Degeneration.” 

%ovc  a nfc  %a\*\ 

You  remember  the  profound  re¬ 
mark  which  Paul  makes,  “Love  is 
the  fulfilling  of  the  law.”  Did  you 
ever  think  what  he  meant  by  that? 


MY  POINT  OP  VIEW. 


149 


In  those  days  men  were  working 
their  passage  to  Heaven  by  keeping 
the  Ten  Commandments,  and  the 
hundred  and  ten  other  command¬ 
ments  which  they  had  manufactured 
out  of  them.  Christ  said,  I  will 
show  you  a  more  simple  way.  If 
you  do  one  thing,  you  will  do  these 
hundred  and  ten  things,  without 
ever  thinking  about  them.  If  you 
love,  you  will  unconsciously  fulfil 
the  whole  law. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

Xov>e  Immortal. 

We  know  but  little  now  about  the 
conditions  of  the  life  that  is  to  come. 
But  what  is  certain  is  that  Love  must 


150  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

last.  God,  the  Eternal  God,  is  Love. 
Covet,  therefore,  that  everlasting  gift, 
that  one  thing  which  it  is  certain  is 
going  to  stand,  that  one  coinage 
which  will  be  current  in  the  universe 
when  all  the  other  coinages  of  all 
the  nations  of  the  world  shall  be 
useless  and  unhonored.  You  will 
give  yourselves  to  many  things;  give 
yourself  first  to  Love. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

%ovc  is  patience, 

LOVE  is  Patience .  This  is  the 
normal  attitude  of  Love;  Love  pas¬ 
sive,  Love  waiting  to  begin;  not  in 
a  hurry;  calm;  ready  to  do  its  work 
when  the  summons  comes,  but  mean- 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


151 

time  wearing  the  ornament  of  a  meek 
and  quiet  spirit. 

The  Greatest  Thin p  in  the  World 

O 

XowUness. 

Men  sigh  for  the  wings  of  a  dove, 
that  they  may  fly  away  and  be  at  rest. 
But  flying  away  will  not  help  us. 
‘ c  The  Kingdom  of  God  is  within 
you."  We  aspire  to  the  top  to  look 

for  rest ;  it  lies  at  the  bottom.  Water 
rests  only  when  it  gets  to  the  lowest 

place.  So  do  men.  Hence  be  lowly. 

Pax  Vobiscum. 


/Magnets. 

Put  a  piece  of  iron  in  the  presence 
of  an  electrified  body  and  that  piece 
of  iron  for  a  time  becomes  electrified. 


J52 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


It  is  changed  into  a  temporary  magnet 
in  the  mere  presence  of  a  permanent 
magnet,  and  as  long  as  you  leave  the 
two  side  by  side  they  are  both  magnets 
alike.  Remain  side  by  side  with  Him 
who  loved  us  and  gave  Himself  for  us, 
and  you  too  will  become  a  permanent 
magnet,  a  permanently  attractive  force ; 
and  like  Him  you  will  draw  all  men 
unto  you,  like  Him  you  will  be  drawn 
unto  all  men.  That  is  the  inevitable 
effect  of  Love. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


/iDasters* 

He  who  seeks  to  serve  two  masters 
misses  the  benediction  of  both. 


Natural  Law  :  “  Mortification.,, 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


*53 


/Material  s* 

The  lowest  or  mineral  world  mainly 
supplies  the  material — and  this  is  true 
even  for  insectivorous  species — for  the 
vegetable  kingdom.  The  vegetable 
supplies  the  material  for  the  animal. 
Next  in  turn,  the  animal  furnishes 
material  for  the  mental  ;  and  lastly, 
the  mental  for  the  spiritual.  Each 
member  of  the  series  is  complete  only 
when  the  steps  below  it  are  complete ; 
the  highest  demands  all. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Conformity  to  Type.” 

/ibetbob. 

Realize  it  thoroughly :  it  is  a 
methodical,  not  an  accidental  world. 

Pax  Vobiscum. 


*54 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


/Bimetal,  jflesb,  Spirit, 

The  first  Law  of  biology  is,  That 
which  is  Mineral  is  Mineral  ;  that 
which  is  Flesh  is  Flesh  ;  that  which 
is  Spirit  is  Spirit.  The  mineral  re¬ 
mains  in  the  inorganic  world  until  it 
is  seized  upon  by  a  something  called 
Life  outside  the  inorganic  world  ;  the 

natural  man  remains  the  natural  man 

% 

until  a  Spiritual  Life  from  without 
the  natural  life  seizes  upon  him,  re¬ 
generates  him,  changes  him  into  a 
spiritual  man. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Classification.” 

Ube  /KMrtistrp. 

The  advantage  of  the  ministry  is 
that  a  man’s  whole  life  can  be  thrown 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


155 


into  the  carrying  out  of  that  pro¬ 
gramme  without  any  deduction.  An¬ 
other  advantage  of  the  ministry  is  that 
it  is  so  poorly  paid  that  a  man  is  not 
tempted  to  cut  a  dash  and  shine  in  the 
world,  but  can  be  meek  and  lowly  in 
heart,  like  his  Master.  It  is  enough 
for  a  servant  to  be  like  his  master,  and 
there  is  a  great  attraction  in  seeking 
obscurity,  even  isolation,  if  one  can 
be  following  the  highest  ideals. 

What  is  a  Christian  ? 

/iDfracle* 

That  question  is  thrown  at  my 
head  every  second  day  :  “  What  do  you 
say  to  a  man  when  he  says  to  you, 

4  Why  do  you  believe  in  miracles?’  ” 


156  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


I  say,  “  Because  I  have  seen  them.” 
He  says,  “When?”  I  say,  “Yester¬ 
day.”  He  says,  “Where?”  “Down 
such-and-such  a  street  I  saw  a  man 
who  was  a  drunkard  redeemed  by  the 
power  of  an  unseen  Christ  and  saved 
from  sin.  That  is  a  miracle.”  The 
best  apologetic  for  Christianity  is  a 
Christian.  That  is  a  fact  which  the 
man  cannot  get  over.  There  are  fifty 
other  arguments  for  miracles,  but 
none  so  good  as  that  you  have  seen 
them.  Perhaps  you  are  one  yourself. 
But  take  vou  a  man  and  show  him  a 
miracle  with  his  own  eyes.  Then  he 
will  believe. 


How  to  Learn  Homy, 


MY  POINT  OE  VIEW. 


157 


/BMrrors* 

One  of  the  aptest  descriptions  of  a 
human  being  is  that  he  is  a  mirror. 
As  we  sat  at  table  to-night  the  world 
in  which  each  of  us  lived  and  moved 
throughout  this  day  was  focussed  in 
the  room.  What  we  saw  as  we  look¬ 
ed  at  one  another  was  not  one  an¬ 
other,  but  one  another’s  world.  We 
were  an  arrangement  of  mirrors.  The 
scenes  we  saw  were  all  reproduced  ; 
the  people  we  met  walked  to  and  fro  ; 
they  spoke,  they  bowed,  they  passed 
us  by,  did  everything  over  again  as 
if  it  had  been  real.  When  we  talked 
we  were  but  looking  at  our  own  mir¬ 
ror  and  describing  what  flitted  across 


I58  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


it.  Our  listening  was  not  hearing, 
but  seeing — we  but  looked  on  our 
neighbor’s  mirror.  All  human  inter¬ 
course  is  a  seeing  of  reflections. 

The  Changed  Life . 

Zbc  Zv ue  /HMsslonarp* 

It  is  the  man  who  is  the  mission¬ 
ary,  it  is  not  his  words.  His  charac¬ 
ter  is  his  message.  In  the  heart  of 
Africa,  among  the  Great  Lakes,  I 
have  come  across  men  and  women 
who  remembered  the  only  white  man 
they  ever  saw  before — David  Living¬ 
stone  ;  and  as  you  cross  his  footsteps 
in  that  dark  continent,  men’s  faces 
light  up  as  they  speak  of  the  kind 
Doctor  who  passed  there  years  ago. 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


i>  i;  i 

159 

They  could  not  understand  him  ;  but 
they  felt  the  Love  that  beat  in  his 
heart. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World . 


flDissionan?  Enterprise* 

Science  has  a  duty  in  pointing  out 
that  no  devotion  or  enthusiasm  can 
give  any  man  a  charmed  life,  and 
that  those  who  work  for  the  highest 
ends  will  best  attain  them  in  humble 
obedience  to  the  common  laws.  Tran- 
scendentally,  this  may  be  denied  ;  the 
warning  finger  may  be  despised  as 
the  hand  of  the  coward  and  the  pro- 
fane.  But  the  fact  remains — the  fact 
of  an  awful  chain  of  English  graves 
stretching  across  Africa.  This  is  not 


i6o 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


spoken,  nevertheless,  to  discourage 
missionary  enterprise.  It  is  only  said 
to  regulate  it. 

Tropical  Africa* 


tfCdsun&erstanfclng, 

The  religion  of  Jesus  has  probably 
always  suffered  more  from  those  who 
have  misunderstood  than  from  those 
who  have  opposed  it.  Of  the  multi¬ 
tudes  who  confess  Christianity  at  this 
hour  how  many  have  clear  in  their 
minds  the  cardinal  distinction  estab¬ 
lished  by  its  Founder  between  u  born 

of  the  flesh  ’  ’  and  4 4  born  of  the 
\ 

Spirit”?  By  how  many  teachers  of 
Christianity  even  is  not  this  funda- 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


161 

mental  postulate  persistently  ig¬ 
nored  ! 

Natural  Law  :  “  Introduction.” 

/iDoralitp. 

What  history  testifies  to  is  first  the 
partial,  and  then  the  total,  eclipse  of 
virtue  that  always  follows  the  aban¬ 
donment  of  belief  in  a  personal  God. 
It  is  not,  as  has  been  pointed  out 
a  hundred  times,  that  morality  in 
the  abstract  disappears,  but  the 
motive  and  sanction  are  gone.  There 
is  nothing  to  raise  it  from  the  dead. 
Man’s  attitude  to  it  is  left  to  himself. 
Grant  that  morals  have  their  own 
base  in  human  life;  grant  that  Nature 

has  a  Religion  whose  creed  is  Science; 

F 


« 


i62 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


there  is  yet  nothing  apart  from  God 
to  save  the  world  from  moral  Death. 
Morality  has  the  power  to  dictate, 
but  none  to  move.  Nature  directs, 
but  cannot  control. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Death.” 

flDortificatton. 

The  Mortification  of  a  member, 
again,  is  based  on  the  Law  of  Degen¬ 
eration.  The  useless  member  here  is 
not  cut  off,  but  simply  relieved  as 
much  as  possible  of  all  exercise.  This 
encourages  the  gradual  decay  of  the 
parts,  and  as  it  is  more  and  more 
neglected  it  ceases  to  be  a  channel 
for  life  at  all.  So  an  organism 
“mortifies”  its  members. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Mortification.” 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW.  1 65 


/Easters. 

What  is  mystery  to  many  men, 
what  feeds  their  worship  and  at  the 
same  time  spoils  it,  is  that  area  round 
all  great  truth  which  is  really  capable 
of  illumination,  and  into  which  every 
earnest  mind  is  permitted  and  com¬ 
manded  to  go  with  a  light.  We  cry 
‘  ‘  Mystery  ’  ’  long  before  the  region 
of  mystery  comes.  True  mystery 
casts  no  shadows  around.  It  is  a 
sudden  and  awful  gulf  yawning 
across  the  field  of  knowledge;  its 
form  is  irregular,  but  its  lips  are 
clean-cut  and  sharp,  and  the  mind 
can  go  to  the  very  verge  and  look 


164  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


down  the  precipice  into  the  dim 
abyss 

“  Where  writhing  clouds  unroll, 

Striving  to  utter  themselves  in  shapes.” 

Natural  Law  :  “  Biogenesis.” 


/listen?  Everywhere* 

A  Science  without  mystery  is  un¬ 
known;  a  Religion  without  mystery 
is  absurd.  The  elimination  of  mys¬ 
tery  from  the  universe  is  the  elimina¬ 
tion  of  Religion.  However  far  the 
scientific  method  may  penetrate  the 
Spiritual  World,  there  will  always 
remain  a  region  to  be  explored  by 
a  scientific  faith. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Introduction.” 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


IRarrowness  of  Breabtb* 

If,  instead  of  looking  on  and  crit¬ 
icising  those  who  know  a  thing  or 
two,  those  who  think  they  are  wiser, 
and  that  they  have  the  whole  truth, 
would  throw  themselves  in  among 
others,  and  back  them,  and  try  to 
work  alongside  of  them,  they  would 
get  perhaps  their  breadth  tempered  by 
earnestness  and  by  zeal,  because  the 
narrow  man  has  much  to  contribute 
to  the  Christian  cause,  perhaps  more 
than  the  broad  man. 

What  Is  a  Christian  ? 

Natural  Xaws. 

The  Laws  of  Nature  are  simply 
statements  of  the  orderly  condition  of 


1 66 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


things  in  Nature — what  is  found  in 
Nature  by  a  sufficient  number  of  com¬ 
petent  observers.  What  these  Laws 
are  in  themselves  is  not  agreed.  That 
they  have  any  absolute  existence, 
even,  is  far  from  certain.  They  are 
relative  to  man  in  his  many  limita¬ 
tions,  and  represent  for  him  the  con¬ 
stant  expression  of  what  he  may  al¬ 
ways  expect  to  find  in  the  world 
around  him.  But  that  they  have 
any  causal  connection  with  the  things 
around  him  is  not  to  be  conceived. 
The  Natural  Laws  originate  nothing, 
sustain  nothing ;  they  are  merely  re¬ 
sponsible  for  uniformity  in  sustaining 
what  has  been  originated  and  what  is 
being  sustained.  They  are  modes  of 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW.  1 67 

t  '  ■  — — '  '  *  ~  ~  "" 

operation,  therefore,  not  operators ; 
processes,  not  powers.  , 

Natural  Law:  “  Introduction.” 

The  Natural  Laws,  then,  are  great 
lines  running  not  only  through  the 
world,  but,  as  we  now  know,  through 
the  universe,  reducing  it  like  parallels 
of  latitude  to  intelligent  order.  In 
themselves,  be  it  once  more  repeated, 
they  may  have  no  more  absolute 
existence  than  parallels  of  latitude. 
But  they  exist  for  us.  They  are 
drawn  for  us  to  understand  the  part 
by  some  Hand  that  drew  the  whole; 
so  drawn,  perhaps,  that,  understand¬ 
ing  the  part,  we  too,  in  time,  may 
learn  to  understand  the  whole. 


Natural  Law  :  “Introduction.” 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


1 68 


Natural  an&  Spiritual* 

The  Spiritual  World  is  simply  the 
outermost  segment,  circle,  or  circles 
of  the  Natural  World.  For  purposes 
of  convenience  we  separate  the  two, 
just  as  we  separate  the  animal  world 
from  the  plant.  But  the  animal  world 
and  the  plant  world  are  the  same 
world.  They  are  different  parts  of 
one  environment.  And  the  natural 
and  spiritual  are  likewise  one.  The 
inner  circles  are  called  the  natural, 
the  outer  the  spiritual.  And  we  call 
them  spiritual  simply  because  they 
are  beyond  us  or  beyond  a  part  of  us. 
What  we  have  correspondence  with, 
that  we  call  natural  ;  what  we  have 


MY  POINT  OP  VIEW. 


169 


little  or  no  correspondence  with,  that 
we  call  spiritual.  But  when  the  ap¬ 
propriate  corresponding  organism  ap¬ 
pears — the  organism,  that  is,  which 
can  freely  communicate  with  these 
outer  circles — the  distinction  neces¬ 
sarily  disappears.  The  spiritual  to  it 
becomes  the  outer  circle  of  the 
natural. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Death.” 

Natural  anfc  Supernatural. 

The  mental  and  moral  world  is  un¬ 
known  to  the  plant.  But  it  is  real. 
It  cannot  be  affirmed  either  that  it  is 
unnatural  to  the  plant ;  although  it 
might  be  said  that  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  Vegetable  Kingdom  it 


I  JO 


MY  POINT  OK  VIEW, 


was  supernatural .  Things  are  natural 
or  supernatural  simply  according  to 
where  one  stands.  Man  is  super¬ 
natural  to  the  mineral  ;  God  is  super¬ 
natural  to  the  man.  When  a  mineral 
is  seized  upon  by  the  living  plant  and 
elevated  to  the  organic  kingdom,  no 
trespass  against  Nature  is  committed. 
It  merely  enters  a  larger  Environment, 
which  before  was  supernatural  to  it, 
but  which  now  is  entirely  natural. 
When  the  heart  of  a  man,  again,  is 
seized  upon  by  the  quickening  Spirit 
of  God,  no  further  violence  is  done  to 
natural  law.  It  is  another  case  of  the 
inorganic,  so  to  speak,  passing  into 
the  organic. 


Natural  Law  :  “  Eternal  Life/’ 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


171 


Mature  a  Ibarmonp. 

IF  Nature  be  a  harmony,  man  in 
all  his  relations — physical,  mental, 
moral,  and  spiritual — falls  to  be  in¬ 
cluded  within  its  circle.  It  is  alto¬ 
gether  unlikely  that  man  spiritual 
should  be  violently  separated  in  all 
the  conditions  of  growth,  develop¬ 
ment,  and  life  from  man  physical. 
It  is  indeed  difficult  to  conceive  that 
one  set  of  principles  should  guide 
the  natural  life,  and  these  at  a  certain 
period — the  very  point  where  they 
are  needed — suddenly  give  place  to 
another  set  of  principles  altogether 
new  and  unrelated.  Nature  has  never 
taught  us  to  expect  such  a  catastro- 


172 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


phe.  She  has  nowhere  prepared  us 
for  it.  And  man  cannot  in  the 
nature  of  things,  in  the  nature  of 
thought,  in  the  nature  of  language, 
be  separated  into  two  such  incoherent 
halves. 

Natural  Law :  “  Introduction!.” 


IRature  a  Symbol. 

With  Nature  as  the  symbol  of  all 
of  harmony  and  beauty  that  is  known 
to  man,  must  we  still  talk  of  the  super¬ 
natural,  not  as  a  convenient  word,  but 
as  a  different  order  of  world,  an  unin¬ 
telligible  world,  where  the  Reign  of 
Mystery  supersedes  the  Reign  of 
Law  ? 


Natural  Law:  “  Introduction.” 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


173 


■Mature  a  Worfetng*=fl&ot>el  of  tbe 

Spiritual. 

So  the  Spiritual  World  becomes 
slowly  Natural ;  and,  what  is  of  all 
but  equal  moment,  the  Natural  World 
becomes  slowly  Spiritual.  Nature  is 
not  a  mere  image  or  emblem  of  the 
Spiritual.  It  is  a  working-model  of 
the  Spiritual.  In  the  Spiritual  World 
the  same  wheels  revolve — but  without 
the  iron.  The  same  figures  flit  across 
the  stage,  the  same  processes  of  growth 
go  on,  the  same  functions  are  dis¬ 
charged,  the  same  biological  laws 
prevail — only  with  a  different  quality 
of  Btos.  Plato’s  prisoner,  if  not  out 


i74 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


of  the  Cave,  has  at  least  his  face  to 
the  light. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Introduction.” 

IRature  an&  /iDan* 

WE  find  that  in  maintaining  this 
natural  life  Nature  has  a  share  and 
man  has  a  share.  By  far  the  larger 
part  is  done  for  us — the  breathing, 
the  secreting,  the  circulating  of  the 
blood,  the  building  up  of  the  organ¬ 
ism.  And  although  the  part  which 
man  plays  is  a  minor  part,  yet,  strange 
to  say,  it  is  not  less  essential  to  the 
well-being,  and  even  to  the  being  of 
the  whole.  For  instance,  man  has 
to  take  food.  He  has  nothing  to  do 
with  it  after  he  has  once  taken  it,  for 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


J75 


the  moment  it  passes  his  lips  it  is 
taken  in  hand  by  reflex  actions  and 
handed  on  from  one  organ  to  another, 
his  control  over  it,  in  the  natural 
course  of  things,  being  completely 
lost  But  the  initial  act  was  his. 
And  without  that  nothing  could  have 
been  done.  Now,  whether  there  be 
an  exact  analogy  between  the  volun¬ 
tary  and  involuntary  functions  in  the 
body  and  the  corresponding  processes 
in  the  soul  we  do  not  at  present  in¬ 
quire.  But  this  will  indicate,  at 
least,  that  man  has  his  own  part  to 
play.  Let  him  choose  Life;  let  him 
daily  nourish  his  soul;  let  him  for 
ever  starve  the  old  life;  let  him  abide 
continuously  as  a  living  branch  in 


176 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


the  Vine,  and  the  True-Vine  Life 
will  flow  into  his  soul;  assimilating, 
renewing,  conforming  to  Type,  till 
Christ,  pledged  by  His  own  law,  be 
formed  in  him. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Conformity  to  Type.” 

mature  ant>  /IDoraltts. 

Nature  and  Morality  provide  all 
for  virtue — except  the  Life  to  live  it. 

Natural  Law  :  “Death.” 

IRcQativcs. 

Religion  does  not  consist  in  nega¬ 
tives,  in  stopping  this  sin  and  stopping 
that.  The  perfect  character  can  never 
be  produced  with  a  pruning-knife. 

The  Changed  Life . 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


1 77 


IReglect 

From  the  very  nature  of  salvation 
it  is  plain  that  the  only  thing  neces¬ 
sary  to  make  it  of  no  effect  is  neglect. 
Hence  the  Bible  could  not  fail  to  lay 
strong  emphasis  on  a  word  so  vital. 
It  was  not  necessary  for  it  to  say,  How 
shall  we  escape  if  we  trample  upon 
the  great  salvation,  or  doubt  or  despise 
or  reject  it?  A  man  who  has  been 
poisoned  only  need  neglect  the  anti¬ 
dote  and  he  will  die.  It  makes  no 
difference  whether  he  dashes  it  on  the 
ground,  or  pours  it  out  of  the  window, 
or  sets  it  down  by  his  bedside  and 
stares  at  it  all  the  time  he  is  dying. 
He  will  die  just  the  same,  whether  he 


178  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


destroys  it  in  a  passion  or  coolly  refuses 
to  have  anything  to  do  with  it.  And, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  probably  most 
deaths,  spiritually,  are  gradual  disso¬ 
lutions  of  the  last  class  rather  than 
rash  suicides  of  the  first. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Degeneration.” 

If  we  neglect  the  ordinary  means 
of  keeping  a  garden  in  order,  how 
shall  it  escape  running  to  weeds  and 
waste?  Or  if  we  neglect  the  oppor¬ 
tunities  for  cultivating  the  mind,  how 
shall  it  escape  ignorance  and  feeble¬ 
ness?  So,  if  we  neglect  the  soul,  how 
shall  it  escape  the  natural  retrograde 
movement,  the  inevitable  relapse  into 
barrenness  and  death  ? 

Natural  Law  :  “  Degeneration.” 


1 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


179 


Ube  Bew  Ibeart 

Religion  does  not  tell  us  to  give 
things  up,  but  rather  gives  us  some¬ 
thing  so  much  better  that  they  give 
themselves  up.  Instead  of  telling 
people  to  give  uj  things,  we  are  safer 
to  tell  them  to  “  seek  first  the  king¬ 
dom  of  God,  ’  ’  and  then  they  will  get 
new  things  and  better  things,  and  the 
old  things  will  drop  off  of  themselves. 
This  is  what  is  meant  by  the  new 
heart. 

“  First  r 

©bebience. 

What  was  Christ  doing  in  the  car¬ 
penter’ s  shop  ?  Practising.  Though 
perfect,  we  read  that  he  learned  obe- 


i8o 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


dience,  and  grew  in  wisdom  and  in 
favor  with  God. 

Ihe  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World . 

©beMence  anb  IknowlebQe* 

Some  of  you  remember  a  sermon 
of  Robertson  of  Brighton,  entitled, 
u  Obedience  the  Organ  of  Spiritual 
Knowledge.”  A  very  startling  title  ! 
— “  Obedience  the  Organ  of  Spiritual 
Knowledge.”  The  Pharisees  asked 
about  Christ:  u  How  knoweth  this 
man  letters,  never  having  learned?” 
How  knoweth  this  man,  never  hav¬ 
ing  learned  ?  The  organ  of  know¬ 
ledge  is  not  nearly  so  much  mind,  a 9 
the  organ  that  Christ  used,  namely, 
obedience  ;  and  that  was  the  organ 


MY  POINT  OP  VIEW. 


181 

which  He  Himself  insisted  upon 
when  He  said,  u  He  that  willeth  to 
do  His  will  shall  know  of  the  doc¬ 
trine  whether  it  be  of  God.”  You 
have  all  noticed,  of  course,  that  the 
words  in  the  original  are,  ‘  ‘  If  any 
man  will  to  do  His  will,  he  shall 
know  of  the  doctrine.”  It  doesn’t 
read,  “If  any  do  His  will,”  which  no 
man  can  do  perfectly  ;  but  if  any  man 
be  simply  willing  to  do  His  will — if 
he  has  an  absolutely  undivided  mind 
about  it — that  man  will  know  what 
truth  is  and  what  falsehood  is ;  a 
stranger  will  he  not  follow.  And 
that  is  by  far  the  best  source  of  spirit¬ 
ual  knowledge  on  every  account — 
obedience  to  God — absolute  sincerity 


182 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


and  loyalty  in  following  Christ.  “If 
any  man  do  His  will,  he  shall  know” 
— a  very  remarkable  association  of 
knowledge,  a  thing  which  is  usual¬ 
ly  considered  quite  intellectual,  with 
obedience,  which  is  moral  and  spirit¬ 
ual. 

How  to  Learn  How. 


©rber,  Spiritual  anb  IRaturaU 

The  spiritual  man  is  not  taxed  be¬ 
yond  the  natural.  He  is  not  purpose¬ 
ly  handicapped  by  singular  limitations 
or  unusual  incapacities.  God  has  not 
designedly  made  the  religious  life  as 
hard  as  possible.  The  arrangements 
for  the  spiritual  life  are  the  same  as 
for  the  natural  life.  When  in  their 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW.  183 


hours  of  unbelief  men  challenge  their 
Creator  for  placing  the  obstacle  of 
human  frailty  in  the  way  of  their 
highest  development,  their  protest  is 
against  the  order  of  nature.  They 
object  to  the  sun  for  being  the  source 
of  energy,  and  not  the  engine  ;  to  the 
carbonic  acid  being  in  the  air,  and 
not  in  the  plant.  They  would  equip 
each  organism  with  a  personal  atmo¬ 
sphere,  each  brain  with  a  private  store 
of  energy  ;  they  would  grow  corn  in 
the  interior  of  the  body,  and  make 
bread  by  a  special  apparatus  in  the 
digestive  organs.  They  must,  in 
short,  have  the  creature  transformed 
into  a  Creator. 


Natural  Law  :  “  Environment/’ 


184  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


©rtbobojp. 

It  is  more  necessary  for  us  to  be 

% 

active  than  to  be  orthodox.  To  be 
orthodox  is  what  we  wish  to  be,  but 
we  can  only  truly  reach  it  by  being 
honest,  by  being  original,  by  seeing 

with  our  own  eyes,  by  believing  with 
our  own  heart. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Parasitism.” 

*  t 

©tber^MorlMtness^ 

The  exclusiveness  of  Christianity, 
separation  from  the  world,  uncom¬ 
promising  allegiance  to  the  Kingdom 
of  God,  entire  surrender  of  body,  soul, 
and  spirit  to  Christ, — these  are  truths 
which  rise  into  prominence  from  time 


/ 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


i85 


to  time,  become  the  watchword  of 
insignificant  parties,  rouse  the  Church 
to  attention  and  the  world  to  opposi¬ 
tion,  and  die  down  ultimately  for 
want  of  lives  to  live  them.  The  few 
enthusiasts  who  distinguish  in  these 
requirements  the  essential  conditions 
of  entrance  into  the  Kingdom  of 
Christ  are  overpowered  by  the  weight 
of  numbers,  who  see  nothing  more  in 
Christianity  than  a  mild  religious¬ 
ness,  and  who  demand  nothing  more 
in  themselves  or  in  their  fellow-Chris- 
tians  than  the  participation  in  a  con¬ 
ventional  worship,  the  acceptance  of 
traditional  beliefs,  and  the  living  of 
an  honest  life.  Yet  nothing  is  more 
certain  than  that  the  enthusiasts  are 


i86 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


right.  Any  impartial  survey — such 
as  the  unique  analysis  in  Ecce  Homo 
— of  the  claims  of  Christ  and  of  the 
nature  of  His  society  will  convince 
any  one  who  cares  to  make  the  in¬ 
quiry  of  the  outstanding  difference 
between  the  system  of  Christianity  in 
the  original  contemplation  and  its 
representations  in  modern  life. 

Natural  Law  :  “Classification.” 


Christianity  marks  the  advent  of 
what  is  simply  a  New  Kingdom.  Its 
distinctions  from  the  Kingdom  below 
it  are  fundamental.  It  demands  from 
its  members  activities  and  responses 
of  an  altogether  novel  order.  It  is, 
in  the  conception  of  its  Founder,  a 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW.  187 


Kingdom  for  which  all  its  adherents 
must  henceforth  exclusively  live  and 
work,  and  which  opens  its  gates  alone 
upon  those  who,  having  counted  the 
cost,  are  prepared  to  follow  it,  if  need 
be  to  the  death.  The  surrender 
Christ  demanded  was  absolute.  Every 
aspirant  for  membership  must  seek 
first  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Classification.” 


Out  of  place. 

IT  is  not  worth  seeking  the  king¬ 
dom  of  God  unless  we  seek  it  first. 
Suppose  you  take  the  helm  out  of  a 
ship  and  hang  it  over  the  bow,  and 
send  that  ship  to  sea — will  it  ever 


188 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


reach  the  other  side  ?  Certainly  not. 
It  will  drift  about  anyhow.  Keep 
religion  in  its  place,  and  it  will  take 
you  straight  through  life,  and  straight 
to  your  Father  in  heaven  when  life  is 
over.  But  if  you  do  not  put  it  in  its 
place,  you  may  just  as  well  have  noth¬ 
ing  to  do  with  it.  Religion  out  of  its 
place  in  a  human  life  is  the  most  mis¬ 
erable  thing  in  the  world. 

"  -First  r 


parable* 

The  place  of  parable  in  teaching, 
and  especially  after  the  sanction  of 
the  greatest  of  Teachers,  must  always 
be  recognized.  The  very  necessities  of 
language,  indeed,  demand  this  method 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW.  1 89 


of  presenting  truth.  The  temporal  is 
the  husk  and  framework  of  theeter 
nal,  and  thoughts  can  be  uttered  only 
through  things. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Introduction.” 


parasitism* 

So  far  from  ministering  to  growth, 
parasitism  ministers  to  decay.  So  fat 
from  ministering  to  holiness — that  is 
to  wholeness — parasitism  ministers  to 
exactly  the  opposite.  One  by  one  the 
spiritual  faculties  droop  and  die  ;  one 
by  one,  from  lack  of  exercise,  the  mus¬ 
cles  of  the  soul  grow  weak  and  flac¬ 
cid  ;  one  by  one  the  moral  activities 
cease.  So  from  him  that  hath  not  is 


190 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


taken  away  that  which  he  hath,  and 
after  a  few  years  of  parasitism  there 
is  nothing  left  to  save. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Parasitism.” 

Ube  past 

Think  of  it  !  the  past  is  not  only 
focussed  there,  in  a  man’s  soul  :  it  is 
there.  All  things  that  he  has  ever 
seen,  known,  felt,  believed,  of  the 
surrounding  world  are  now  within 
him,  have  become  part  of  him,  in 
part  are  him  ;  he  has  been  changed 
into  their  image.  He  may  deny  it, 
he  may  resent  it,  but  they  are  there. 
They  do  not  adhere  to  him,  they  are 
transfused  through  him.  He  cannot 
alter  or  rub  them  out.  They  are  not 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


I9I 

C— — — •  ■■■ . .  . .  —  -  .  ■ 

in  his  memory :  they  are  in  him . 
His  soul  is  as  they  have  filled  it, 
made  it,  left  it. 

The  Changed  Life. 

perfect  Xife. 

PERFECT  life  is  not  merely  the  pos¬ 
sessing  of  perfect  functions,  but  of 
perfect  functions  perfectly  adjusted 
to  each  other,  and  all  conspiring  to 
a  single  result,  the  perfect  working 
of  the  whole  organism. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Growth.” 

perfection. 

Patience,  kindness,  generosity, 
humility,  courtesy,  unselfishness, 
good-temper,  guilessness,  sincerity, 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


192 

— these  make  up  the  supreme  gift, 
the  stature  of  the  perfect  man. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

personality 

If  events  change  men,  much  more 
persons.  No  man  can  meet  another 
on  the  street  without  making  some 
mark  upon  him.  We  say  we  ex¬ 
change  words  when  we  meet;  what 
we  exchange  is  souls.  And  when 
intercourse  is  very  close  and  very 
frequent,  so  complete  is  this  exchange 
that  recognizable  bits  of  the  one  soul 
begin  to  show  in  the  other’s  nature, 
and  the  second  is  conscious  of  a 
similar  and  growing  debt  to  the 
first 


The  Changed  Life . 


MV  POINT  OK  VIEW. 


*93 


{personality  of  Christ 

Oe  course  there  is  a  sense,  and 
a  very  wonderful  sense,  in  which  a 
Great  Personality  breathes  upon  all 
who  come  within  its  influence  an 
abiding  peace  and  trust.  Men  can 
be  to  other  men  as  the  shadow  of 
a  great  rock  in  a  thirsty  land.  Much 
more  Christ;  much  more  Christ  as 
Perfect  Man;  much  more  still  as 
Saviour  of  the  world. 

Pax  Vobiscttm . 

{phenomena:  Cbeir  mnity* 

That  the  Phenomena  of  the  Spirit¬ 
ual  World  are  in  analogy  with  the 
Phenomena  of  the  Natural  World  re¬ 
quires  no  restatement.  Since  Plato 

G 


194 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


enunciated  his  doctrine  of  the  Cava 
or  of  the  twice-divided  line  ;  since 
Christ  spake  in  parables  ;  since  Plo¬ 
tinus  wrote  of  the  world  as  an  imaged 
image  ;  since  the  mysticism  of  Swe¬ 
denborg  ;  since  Bacon  and  Pascal  ; 
since  4  4  Sartor  Resartus  ’  ’  and  k  4  In 
Memoriam,” — it  has  been  all  but  a 
commonplace  with  thinkers  that  4  4  the 
invisible  things  of  God  from  the  crea¬ 
tion  of  the  world  are  clearly  seen,  be¬ 
ing  understood  by  the  things  that  are 
made.”  Milton’s  question — 

“  What  if  earth 

Be  but  the  shadow  of  heaven,  and  things  therein 
Each  to  other  like  more  than  on  earth  is  thought  ?! 

is  now  superfluous. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Introduction.” 


MY  POINT  OP  VIEW. 


*95 


{phrases, 

I  DO  not  think  we  ourselves  are 
aware  how  much  our  religious  life  is 
made  up  of  phrases;  how  much  of 
what  we  call  Christian  experience  is 
only  a  dialect  of  the  Churches,  a 
mere  religious  phraseology,  with 
almost  nothing  behind  it  in  what 
we  really  feel  and  know. 

Pax  Vo  bis  cum. 


There  is  a  difference  between  try¬ 
ing  to  please  and  giving  pleasure. 
Give  pleasure.  Lose  no  chance  of 
giving  pleasure.  For  that  is  the 


196  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


ceaseless  and  anonymous  triumph  of 
a  truly  loving  spirit. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World . 


pieties. 

Man  as  a  rational  and  moral  being 
demands  a  pledge  that  if  he  depends 
on  Nature  for  any  given  result,  on 
the  ground  that  Nature  has  previously 
led  him  to  expect  such  a  result,  his 
intellect  shall  not  be  insulted  nor  his 
confidence  in  her  abused.  If  he  is  to 
trust  Nature,  in  short,  it  must  be 
guaranteed  to  him  that  in  doing  so 
he  will  u  never  be  put  to  confusion/' 

Natural  Law:  “  Introduction.” 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


I97 


Ipcetr^ 

True  poetry  is  only  science  in 
another  form.  And  long  before  it 
was  possible  for  religion  to  give  scien¬ 
tific  expression  to  its  greatest  truths, 
men  of  insight  uttered  themselves  in 
psalms  which  could  not  have  been 
truer  to  Nature  had  the  most  modern 
light  controlled  the  inspiration. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Environment.” 

practical  IKeUgion. 

LET  me  remind  you  that  theology 
is  the  most  abstruse  thing  in  the 
world,  but  that  practical  religion  is 
the  simplest  thing.  If  any  of  you 
want  to  know  how  to  begin  to  be 


198  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


a  Christian,  all  I  can  say  is  that  yon 
should  begin  to  do  the  next  thing 
you  find  to  be  done  as  Christ  would 
have  done  it. 

What  is  a  Christian  ? 

practice. 

What  makes  a  man  a  good  crick¬ 
eter?  Practice.  What  makes  a  man 
a  good  artist,  a  good  sculptor,  a  good 
musician  ?  Practice.  What  makes  a 
man  a  good  linguist,  a  good  stenog¬ 
rapher?  Practice.  What  makes  a 
man  a  good  man?  Practice.  Noth¬ 
ing  else.  There  is  nothing  capricious 
about  religion.  We  do  not  get  the 
soul  in  different  ways,  under  different 
laws,  from  those  in  which  we  get  the 


MY  POINT  OP  VIEW. 


I99 

body  and  the  mind.  If  a  man  does 
not  exercise  his  arm,  he  develops  no 
biceps  muscle;  and  if  a  man  does  not 
exercise  his  soul,  he  acquires  no  muscle 
in  his  soul,  no  strength  of  character, 
no  vigor  of  moral  fire,  nor  beauty  of 
spiritual  growth. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

framer* 

Wile  the  evolutionist  who  admits 
the  regeneration  of  the  frog  under  the 
modifying  influence  of  a  continued 
correspondence  with  a  new  environ¬ 
ment  care  to  question  the  possibility 
of  the  soul  acquiring  such  a  faculty 
as  that  of  Prayer,  the  marvellous 
breathing- function  of  the  new  creature, 


200 


MY  POINT  OK  VIEW. 


when  in  contact  with  the  atmosphere 
of  a  besetting  God  ?  Is  the  change 
from  the  earthly  to  the  heavenly  more 
mysterious  than  the  change  from  the 
aquatic  to  the  terrestrial  mode  of 
life  ? 

Natural  Law  :  “  Eternal  Life.” 

prater  a  Symbol. 

What  a  very  strange  thing,  is  it 
not,  for  man  to  pray?  It  is  the  symbol 
at  once  of  his  littleness  and  ol  his 
greatness.  Here  the  sense  of  imper¬ 
fection,  controlled  and  silenced  in  the 
narrower  reaches  of  his  being,  be¬ 
comes  audible.  Now  he  must  utter 
himself.  The  sense  of  need  is  so  real, 
and  the  sense  of  Environment,  that  he 


MY  POINT  OP  VIEW. 


201 


calls  out  to  it,  addressing  it  articu¬ 
lately  and  imploring  it  to  satisfy  his 
need.  Surely  there  is  nothing  more 
touching  in  Nature  than  this  !  Man 
could  never  so  expose  himself,  so  break 
through  all  constraint,  except  from  a 
dire  necessity. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Environment.” 

IPrias. 

Some  one  defines  a  prig  as  “a 
creature  that  is  overfed  for  its  size.” 
One  sometimes  finds  Christians  of  this 
species — overfed  on  one  side  of  their 
nature,  but  dismally  thin  and  starved 
looking  on  the  other. 

The  Changed  Life . 


i 


202 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


problems* 

The  problems  of  the  heart  and  con¬ 
science  are  infinitely  more  perplexing 
than  those  of  the  intellect.  Has  love 
no  future  ?  Has  right  no  triumph  ? 
Is  the  unfinished  self  to  remain  un¬ 
finished  ?  Again,  the  alternatives  are 
two — Christianity  or  Pessimism.  But 
when  we  ascend  the  further  height  of 
the  religious  nature  the  crisis  comes. 
There,  without  Environment,  the 
darkness  is  unutterable.  So  madden¬ 
ing  now  becomes  the  mystery  that 
men  are  compelled  to  construct  an 
Environment  for  themselves.  No 
Environment  here  is  unthinkable. 
An  altar  of  some  sort  men  must  have 


MY  POINT  OP  VIEW. 


203 


— God,  or  Nature,  or  Law.  But  the 
anguish  of  Atheism  is  only  a  negative 
proof  of  man’s  incompleteness. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Environment.” 

t 

problems  are  IRecessar#* 

I  would  not  rob  a  man  of  his 
problems,  nor  would  I  have  another 
man  rob  me  of  my  problems.  They 
are  the  delight  of  life,  and  the  whole 
intellectual  world  wTould  be  stale  and 
unprofitable  if  we  knew  everything. 

How  to  Learn  How. 

proportion. 

A  man  may  take  a  dollar  or  a  half- 
dollar  and  hold  it  to  his  eye  so  closely 
that  he  will  hide  the  sun  from  him. 


204 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW, 


Or  he  may  so  focus  his  telescope  that 
a  fly  or  a  boulder  may  be  as  large  as 
a  mountain.  A  man  may  hold  a 
certain  doctrine  very  intensely — a 
doctrine  which  has  been  looming 
upon  his  horizon  for  the  last  six 
months,  let  us  say,  and  which  has 
thrown  everything  else  out  of  pro¬ 
portion,  it  has  become  so  big  itself. 
Now,  let  us  beware  of  distortion  in 
the  arrangement  of  the  religious 
truths  which  we  hold. 

How  to  Learn  How. 

punishment. 

The  punishment  of  sin  is  insepar¬ 
ably  bound  up  with  itself. 

Natur  al  Law  :  “  Mortification/ 


MY  POINT  OP  VIEW. 


205 


putting  ©ft  anfc  putting  ©ru 

Escape  means  nothing  more  than 
the  gradual  emergence  of  the  higher 
being  from  the  lower,  and  nothing 
less.  It  means  the  gradual  putting 
off  of  all  that  cannot  enter  the  higher 
state,  or  heaven,  and  simultaneously 
the  putting  on  of  Christ.  It  involves 
the  slow  completing  of  the  soul  and 
the  development  of  the  capacity  for 
God. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Degeneration.” 


fijuantitp  an£>  (SJuaUt^. 

It  is  an  open  secret,  to  be  read  in 
a  hundred  analogies  from  the  world 
around,  that  of  the  millions  of  possi- 


206 


MY  POIXT  OF  VIEW. 


ble  entrants  for  advancement  in  anv 
department  of  Nature  the  number 
ultimately  selected  tor  preferment  is 
small.  Here  also  “many  are  called 
and  :ew  are  chosen."  The  analogues 
irom  the  waste  of  seed,  of  pollen,  of 
human  lives,  are  too  familiar  to  be 
quoted.  In  certain  details,  possibly, 
these  comparisons  are  inappropriate. 
But  there  are  other  analogies,  wider 
and  more  just,  which  strike  deeper 
into  the  svstem  of  Nature.  A  com- 
prehensive  view  of  the  whole  field  of 
Nature  discloses  the  fact  that  the  cir¬ 
cle  of  the  chosen  slowlv  contracts  as 
fre  rise  in  the  scale  of  being.  Some 
mineral,  but  not  all,  becomes  vege¬ 
table  ;(some  vegetable,  but  not  all,  be- 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


207 


comes  animal ;  some  animal,  but  not 
all,  becomes  human ;  some  human, 
but  not  all,  becomes  Divine.  Thus 
ihe  area  narrows.  At  the  base  is  the 
mineral,  most  broad  and  simple ;  the 
spiritual  at  the  apex,  smallest,  but 
most  highly  differentiated.  So  form 
rises  above  form.  Kingdom  above 
Kingdom.  Quantity  decreases  as 

quality  i?icreases. 

Natural  Lara  :  “  Classification." 


Quarrels. 

If  you  want  to  get  the  kingdom  of 
God  into  your  workshop  or  into  your 
home,  let  the  quarrelling  be  stopped. 
Live  in  peace  and  harmony  and  broth¬ 
erliness  with  every  one.  For  the 


208 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


kingdom  of  God  is  a  kingdom  of 
brothers.  It  is  a  great  society,  founds 
ed  by  Jesus  Christ,  of  all  the  people 
who  try  to  be  like  Him,  and  live  to 
make  the  world  better  and  sweeter 
and  happier. 

“First!” 


Questions, 

The  only  legitimate  questions  one 
dare  put  to  Nature  are  those  which 
concern  universal  human  good  and 
the  Divine  interpretation  of  things. 
These  I  conceive  may  be  there  actu¬ 
ally  studied  at  first-hand,  and  before 
their  purity  is  soiled  by  human  touch. 
We  have  Truth  in  Nature  as  it  came 
from  God.  And  it  has  to  be  read 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


209 


with  the  same  unbiassed  mind,  the 
same  open  eye,  the  same  faith,  and 
the  same  reverence  as  all  other  Reve¬ 
lation.  All  that  is  found  there,  what¬ 
ever  its  place  in  Theology,  whatever 
its  orthodoxy  or  heterodoxy,  whatever 
its  narrowness  or  its  breadth,  we  are 
bound  to  accept  as  Doctrine  from 
which  on  the  lines  of  Science  there 
is  no  escape. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Introduction/’ 

(Slmchest  IRoaCh 

If  a  man  could  make  himself  hum¬ 
ble  to  order,  it  might  simplify  mat¬ 
ters  ;  but  we  do  not  find  that  this 
happens.  Hence  we  must  all  go 
through  the  mill.  Hence  death, 


210 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


death  to  the  lower  self,  is  the  nearest 
gate  and  the  quickest  road  to  life. 

Pax  Vobiscum. 


Quietism. 

If  God  is  adding  to  our  spiritual 
stature,  unfolding  the  new  nature 
within  us,  it  is  a  mistake  to  keep 
twitching  at  the  petals  with  our 
coarse  fingers.  We  must  seek  to  let 
the  Creative  Hand  alone. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Growth.” 


IReascm  ant>  ©bebience. 

There  are  two  organs  of  know¬ 
ledge — the  one  Reason,  the  other 
Obedience.  Begin  to  obey  Christ, 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


21 1 


and,  doing  His  will,  you  shall  know 
of  the  doctrine  whether  it  be  of  God 

How  to  Learn  How . 

IReDemptfon. 

Out  of  the  infinite  complexity  there 
rises  an  infinite  simplicity,  the  fore¬ 
shadowing  of  a  final  unity  of  that 

“  One  God,  one  law,  one  element, 

And  one  far-off  divine  event, 

To  which  the  whole  creation  moves.”  * 

This  is  the  final  triumph  of  Con¬ 
tinuity,  the  heart  secret  of  Creation, 
the  unspoken  prophecy  of  Chris- 
tianity.  To  Science,  defining  it  as 
a  working  principle,  this  mighty  pro¬ 
cess  of  amelioration  is  simply  Evolu ' 


*  “  In  Memoriam.” 


212 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


tion .  To  Christianity,  discerning  the 
end  through  the  means,  it  is  Redemp¬ 
tion.  These  silent  and  patient  pro¬ 
cesses,  elaborating,  eliminating,  de¬ 
veloping  all  from  the  first  of  time, 
conducting  the  evolution  from  millen¬ 
nium  to  millennium  with  unaltering 
purpose  and  unfaltering  power,  are 
the  early  stages  in  the  redemptive 
work — the  unseen  approach  of  that 
Kingdom  whose  strange  mark  is  tha* 
it  u  cometh  without  observation. 
And  these  Kingdoms,  rising  tier 
above  tier  in  ever-increasing  sublim- 
itv  and  beautv,  their  foundations  vis- 
ibly  fixed  in  the  past,  their  progress, 
and  the  direction  of  their  progress, 
being  facts  in  Nature  still,  are  the 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


213 


.signs  which,  since  the  Magi  saw  His 
star  in  the  East,  have  never  been 
wanting  from  the  firmament  of  truth, 
and  which  in  every  age,  with  grow¬ 
ing  clearness  to  the  wise  and  with 
ever-gathering  mystery  to  the  unin¬ 
itiated,  proclaim  that  4  ‘  the  Kingdom 
of  God  is  at  hand.” 

Natural  Law  :  “  Classification.” 


IReflectton, 

In  looking  at  a  mirror  one  does  not 
see  the  mirror  or  think  of  it,  but  only 
of  what  it  reflects.  For  a  mirror 
never  calls  attention  to  itself  except 
when  there  are  flaws  in  it. 

The  Changed  Life , 


214 


MY  POINT  OK  VIEW. 


IRegencratton* 

A  FEW  raw,  unspiritual,  uninspir¬ 
ing  men  were  admitted  to  the  inner 
circle  of  His  friendship.  The  change 
began  at  once.  Day  by  day  we  can 
almost  see  the  first  disciples  grow. 
First  there  steals  over  them  the  faint¬ 
est  possible  adumbration  of  His  cha¬ 
racter,  and  occasionally,  very  occa¬ 
sionally,  they  do  a  thing  or  say  a 
thing  that  they  could  not  have  done 
or  said  had  they  not  been  living  there. 
Slowly  the  spell  of  His  life  deepens. 
Reach  after  reach  of  their  nature  is 
overtaken,  thawed,  subjugated,  sanc¬ 
tified.  Their  manners  soften,  their 
words  become  more  gentle,  their  con- 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


215 


duct  more  unselfish.  As  swallows 
who  have  found  a  summer,  as  frozen 
buds  the  spring,  their  starved  human¬ 
ity  bursts  into  a  fuller  life.  They  do 
not  know  how  it  is,  but  they  are  dif¬ 
ferent  men.  One  day  they  find  them¬ 
selves  like  their  Master,  going  about 
and  doing  good.  To  themselves  it  is 
unaccountable,  but  they  cannot  do 
otherwise.  They  were  not  told  to  do 
it,  it  came  to  them  to  do  it.  But  the 
people  who  watch  them  know  well 
how  to  account  for  it — u  They  have 
been,”  they  whisper,  “with  Jesus. ” 
Already,  even,  the  mark  and  seal  of 
His  character  is  upon  them — “  They 
have  been  with  Jesus.”  Unparalleled 
phenomenon,  that  these  poor  fishermen 


2l6 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


should  remind  other  men  of  Christ ! 
Stupendous  victory  and  mystery  of 
regeneration,  that  mortal  men  should 
suggest  to  the  world  God! 

The  Changed  Life ~ 

tRegeneration  a  Difficulty 

Regeneration  has  not  merely 
been  an  outstanding  difficulty,  but 
an  overwhelming  obscurity.  Even 
to  earnest  minds  the  difficulty  of 
grasping  the  truth  at  all  has  always 
proved  extreme.  Philosophically  one 
scarcely  sees  either  the  necessity  or 
the  possibility  of  being  born  again. 
Why  a  virtuous  man  should  not  sim¬ 
ply  grow  better  and  better  until  in 
his  own  right  he  enter  the  Kingdom 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


217 


of  God  is  what  thousands  honestly 
and  seriously  fail  to  understand.  Now 
philosophy  cannot  help  us  here.  Her 
arguments  are,  if  anything,  against  us. 
But  Science  answers  to  the  appeal  at 
once.  If  it  be  simply  pointed  out 
that  this  is  the  same  absurdity  as  to 
ask  why  a  stone  should  not  grow  more 
and  more  living  till  it  enters  the  Or¬ 
ganic  World,  the  point  is  clear  in  an 
instant. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Biogenesis.” 


IReligton  ©pen  to  HU. 

Religion  must  ripen  its  fruits  for 
every  temperament,  and  the  way  even 
into  its  highest  heights  must  be  by 


2i8 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


a  gateway  through  which  the  peoples 
of  the  world  may  pass. 

Pax  Vobiscum . 


IReliQion, 

Religion  is  not  a  strange  or  aaded 
thing,  but  the  inspiration  of  the  sec¬ 
ular  life,  the  breathing  of  an  eternal 
spirit  through  this  temporal  world. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World, 


IRenundaticm* 

IT  is  not  hard  to  give  up  our  rights. 
They  are  often  external.  The  dif¬ 
ficult  thing  is  to  give  up  ourselves. 
The  more  difficult  thing  still  is  not 
to  seek  things  for  ourselves.  After 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


219 


we  have  sought  them,  bought  them, 
won  them,  deserved  them,  we  have 
taken  the  cream  off  them  for  our¬ 
selves  already. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  Worla 

IRest:  f)ow  (Balnefc* 

When  Christ  said  He  would  give 
men  Rest  He  meant  simply  that  He 
would  put  them  in  the  way  of  it. 
By  no  act  of  conveyance  would  or 
could  He  make  over  His  own  Rest 
to  them.  He  could  give  them  His 
receipt  for  it.  That  was  all.  But 
He  would  not  make  it  for  them;  for 
one  thing,  it  was  not  in  His  plan  to 
make  it  for  them;  for  another  thing, 
men  were  not  so  planned  that  it  could 


220 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


be  made  for  them;  and  for  yet  another 
thing,  it  was  a  thousand  times  better 
that  they  should  make  it  for  them¬ 
selves. 

Pax  Vobiscum. 

IRest  through  TKHorfh 

4  ‘  Learn  of  Me,  ’  ’  He  says,  ‘  ‘  and 
ye  shall  find  rest  to  your  souls. n 
Now,  consider  the  extraordinary  orig¬ 
inality  of  this  utterance.  How  novel 
the  connection  between  these  two 
words  ‘  ‘  Learn  ’  ’  and  ‘ (  Rest  ’  ’ !  How 
few  of  us  have  ever  associated  them — 
ever  thought  that  Rest  was  a  thing 
to  be  learned;  ever  laid  ourselves  out 
for  it  as  we  would  to  learn  a  language; 
ever  practised  it  as  we  would  practise 


MY  POINT  OP  VIEW. 


221 


the  violin!  Does  it  not  show  how 
entirely  new  Christ’s  teaching  still 
is  to  the  world,  that  so  old  and  thread¬ 
bare  an  aphorism  should  still  be  so 
little  applied  ?  The  last  thing  most  of 
us  would  have  thought  of  would  have 
been  to  associate  Rest  with  Work . 

Pax  Vobiscum. 


IResuits* 

If  a  housekeeper  turns  out  a  good 
cake,  it  is  the  result  of  a  sound  receipt 
carefully  applied.  She  cannot  mix 
the  assigned  ingredients  and  fire 
them  for  the  appropriate  time  with¬ 
out  producing  the  result.  It  is  not 
she  who  has  made  the  cake  ;  it  is 
Nature.  She  brings  related  things 


222 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


together  ;  sets  causes  at  work  ;  these 
causes  bring  about  the  result.  She 
is  not  a  creator,  but  an  intermediary. 
She  does  not  expect  random  causes 
to  produce  specific  effects — random  in¬ 
gredients  would  only  produce  ran¬ 
dom  cakes.  So  it  is  in  the  making 
of  Christian  experiences.  Certain 
lines  are  followed  ;  certain  effects  are 
the  result.  These  effects  cannot  but 
be  the  resvilt.  But  the  result  can 
never  take  place  without  the  previous 
cause.  To  expect  results  without 
antecedents  is  to  expect  cakes  with¬ 
out  ingredients.  That  impossibility 
is  precisely  the  almost  universal  ex¬ 
pectation. 


Pax  Vobiscum. 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


223 


Ube  IReaurrectton. 

On  what  does  the  Christian  argu¬ 
ment  for  Immortality  really  rest  ?  It 
stands  upon  the  pedestal  on  which  the 
theologian  rests  the  whole  of  histori¬ 
cal  Christianity — the  Resurrection  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Eternal  Life.” 


IRetrtbution* 

If  it  makes  no  impression  on  a  man 
to  know  that  God  will  visit  his  iniqui¬ 
ties  upon  him,  he  cannot  blind  him¬ 
self  to  the  fact  that  Nature  will.  Do 
we  not  all  know  what  it  is  to  be  pun¬ 
ished  by  Nature  for  disobeying  her? 


224 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


We  have  looked  round  the  wards  of 
a  hospital,  a  prison,  or  a  madhouse, 
and  seen  there  Nature  at  work  squar- 
ing  her  accounts  with  sin.  And  we 
knew  as  we  looked  that  if  no  Judge 
sat  on  the  throne  of  heaven  at  all, 
there  was  a  Judgment  throne,  where 
an  inexorable  Nature  was  crying 
aloud  for  justice,  and  carrying  out 
her  heavy  sentences  for  violated  laws. 

Natui'al  Law  :  “  Degeneration.” 

IRetrospect* 

As  memory  scans  the  past,  above 
and  beyond  all  the  transitory  pleas¬ 
ures  of  life  there  leap  forward  those 
supreme  hours  when  you  have  been 
enabled  to  do  unnoticed  kindnesses 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


225 


to  those  round  about  you — things  too 
trifling  to  speak  about,  but  which  you 
feel  have  entered  into  your  eternal 
life. 


The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World, 


IRevelatioru 

Revelation  never  volunteers  any¬ 
thing  that  man  could  discover  for 
himself — on  the  principle,  probably, 
that  it  is  only  when  he  is  capable  of 
discovering  it  that  he  is  capable  of 
appreciating  it. 

Natural  Law  :  " Introduction.” 

1Re\>enge, 

Yesterday  you  got  a  certain  letter. 
You  sat  down  and  wrote  a  reply  which 


226 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


almost  scorched  the  paper.  You 
picked  the  cruellest  adjectives  you 
knew,  and  sent  it  forth,  without  a 
pang,  to  do  its  ruthless  work.  You 
did  that  because  your  life  was  set  in 
the  wrong  key.  You  began  the  day 
with  the  mirror  placed  at  the  wrong 
angle.  To-morrow,  at  day-break,  turn 
it  toward  Him,  and  even  to  your  ene- 
my  the  fashion  of  your  countenance 
will  be  changed.  Whatever  you  then 
do,  one  thing  you  will  find  you  could 
not  do — you  could  not  write  that  let¬ 
ter.  Your  first  impulse  may  be  the 
same,  your  judgment  may  be  un¬ 
changed,  but  if  you  try  it  the  ink 
will  dry  on  your  pen,  and  you  will 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


227 


rise  from  your  desk  an  unavenged,  but 
a  greater  and  more  Christian  man. 

How  to  Learn  How. 

IReversiort  to  XTppe* 

The  law  of  Reversion  to  Type  runs 
through  all  creation.  If  a  man  neglect 
himself  for  a  few  years,  he  will  change 
into  a  worse  man  and  a  lower  man. 
If  it  is  his  body  that  he  neglects,  he 
will  deteriorate  into  a  wild  and  bestial 
savage,  like  the  de-humanized  men 
who  are  discovered  sometimes  upon 
desert  islands.  If  it  is  his  mind,  it 
will  degenerate  into  imbecility  and 
madness — solitary  confinement  has  the 
power  to  unmake  men’s  minds  and 
leave  them  idiots.  If  he  neglect  his 


22  8 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


conscience,  it  will  run  off  into  law¬ 
lessness  and  vice.  Or,  lastly,  if  it  is 
his  soul,  it  must  inevitably  atrophy, 
drop  off  in  ruin  and  decay. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Degeneration,” 


*Ktgbteou3ness* 

Righteousness,  of  course,  is  just 
doing  what  is  right.  Any  boy  who, 
instead  of  being  quarrelsome,  lives 
at  peace  with  the  other  boys  has  the 
Kingdom  of  God  within  him.  Any 
boy  whose  heart  is  filled  with  joy 
because  he  does  wThat  is  right  has 
the  Kingdom  of  God  within  him. 


«  First  r 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


229 


IRlQbts* 

In  Britain  the  Englishman  is  de¬ 
voted,  and  rightly,  to  his  rights.  But 
there  come  times  when  a  man  may 
exercise  even  the  higher  right  of 
giving  up  his  rights. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


Salvation* 

There  is  a  natural  principle  in  man 
lowering  him,  deadening  him,  pulling 
him  down  by  inches  to  the  mere  ani¬ 
mal  plane,  blinding  reason,  searing 
conscience,  paralyzing  will.  This  is 
the  active  destroying  principle,  or  Sin. 
Now,  to  counteract  this,  God  has  dis¬ 
covered  to  us  another  principle,  which- 


230 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


will  stop  this  drifting  process  in  the 
soul  and  make  it  drift  the  other  way. 
This  is  the  active  saving  principle, 
or  Salvation.  If  a  man  finds  the  first 
of  these  powers  furiously  at  work 
within  him,  dragging  his  whole  life 
downward  to  destruction,  there  is  only 
one  way  to  escape  his  fate — to  take 
resolute  hold  of  the  upward  power, 
and  be  borne  by  it  to  the  opposite 
pole. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Degeneration.” 

Mark  well  the  splendor  of  this 
idea  of  salvation.  It  is  not  merely 
final  ‘  ‘  safety, 1 5  to  be  forgiven  sin,  to 
evade  the  curse.  It  is  not,  vaguely, 
u  to  get  to  heaven.’’  It  is  to  be  con¬ 
formed  to  the  Image  of  the  Son. 


MY  POINT  OP  VIEW. 


231 


It  is  for  these  poor  elements  to  attain 
to  the  Supreme  Beauty.  The  organ¬ 
izing  L,ife  being  Eternal,  so  must 
this  Beauty  be  immortal.  Its  prog¬ 
ress  toward  the  Immaculate  is  already 
guaranteed.  And  more  than  all,  there 
is  here  fulfilled  the  sublimest  of  all 
prophecies;  not  Beauty  alone,  but 
Unity,  is  secured  by  the  type — Unity 
of  man  and  man,  God  and  man,  God 
and  Christ  and  man,  till  u  all  shall 
be  one.” 

Natural  Law  :  “  Conformity  to  Type.” 

Sanctification* 

Here  the  solution  of  the  problem 
of  sanctification  is  compressed  into  a 
sentence :  Reflect  the  character  of 


232  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


Christ,  and  you  will  become  Itke 
Christ. 

The  Changed  Life . 

Scepticism. 

It  is  the  want  of  the  discerning 
faculty,  the  clairvoyant  power  of  see¬ 
ing  the  eternal  in  the  temporal,  rather 
than  the  failure  of  the  reason,  that 
begets  the  sceptic. 

Natural  Law:  “Introduction.’* 


Science  a nfc  Boubt. 

It  is  recognized  by  all  that  the 
younger  and  abler  minds  of  this  age 
find  the  most  serious  difficulty  in  ac¬ 
cepting  or  retaining  the  ordinary 
forms  or  belief.  Especially  is  this 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


23  3 


true  of  those  whose  culture  is  scien¬ 
tific.  And  the  reason  is  palpable. 
No  man  can  study  modern  Science 
without  a  change  coming  over  his 
view  of  truth.  What  impresses  him 
about  Nature  is  its  solidity.  He  is 
there  standing  upon  actual  things, 
among  fixed  laws.  And  the  integrity 
of  the  scientific  method  so  seizes  him 
that  all  other  forms  of  truth  begin 
to  appear  comparatively  unstable. 
He  did  not  know  before  that  any 
form  of  truth  could  so  hold  him,  and 
the  immediate  effect  is  to  lessen  his 
interest  in  all  that  stands  on  other 
bases.  This  he  feels  in  spite  of  him¬ 
self  ;  he  struggles  against  it  in  vain, 
and  he  finds,  perhaps  to  his  alarm, 


234 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


that  he  is  drifting  fast  into  what  looks 
at  first  like  pure  Positivism. 

ATatural  Law  :  “  Preface. ,F 


Science  an&  fa ttb* 

It  is  quite  erroneous  to  suppose 
that  Science  ever  overthrows  Faith, 
if  by  that  is  implied  that  any  natural 
truth  can  oppose  successfully  any  sin¬ 
gle  spiritual  truth.  Science  cannot 
overthrow  Faith ;  but  it  shakes  it. 
Its  own  doctrines,  grounded  in  Na¬ 
ture,  are  so  certain  that  the  truths  of 
Religion,  resting  to  most  men  on 
Authority,  are  felt  to  be  strangely 
insecure.  The  difficulty,  therefore, 
which  men  of  Science  feel  about  Re- 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


^35 


ligion  is  real  and  inevitable,  and  in 
so  far  as  Doubt  is  a  conscientious 
tribute  to  the  inviolability  of  Nature 
it  is  entitled  to  respect. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Preface.” 


Science  an  Uih  to  faith. 

The  belief  in  Science  as  an  aid  to 
faith  is  not  yet  ripe  enough  to  war¬ 
rant  men  in  searching  there  for 
witnesses  to  the  highest  Christian 
truths.  The  inspiration  of  Nature,  it 
is  thought,  extends  to  the  humbler 
doctrines  alone.  And  yet  the  rever¬ 
ent  inquirer  who  guides  his  steps  in 
the  right  direction  may  find  even  now 
in  the  still  dim  twilight  of  the  scien- 


236  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


tific  world  much  that  will  illuminate 
and  intensify  his  sublimest  faith. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Eternal  Life.’* 

Science  an&  IReUgton, 

No  man  who  knows  the  splendor 
of  scientific  achievement  or  cares  for 
it>  no  man  who  feels  the  solidity  of 
its  method  or  works  with  it,  can  re¬ 
main  neutral  with  regard  to  Religion. 
He  must  either  extend  his  method 
into  it,  or,  if  that  is  impossible,  op¬ 
pose  it  to  the  knife.  On  the  other 
hand,  no  one  who  knows  the  content 
of  Christianity  or  feels  the  universal 
need  of  a  Religion  can  stand  idly  by 
while  the  intellect  of  his  age  is  slowly 
divorcing  itself  from  it.  What  is 


MY  POINT  OK  VIEW. 


237 


required,  therefore,  to  draw  Science 
and  Religion  together  again — for  they 
began  the  centuries  hand  in  hand — 
is  the  disclosure  of  the  naturalness 
of  the  supernatural.  Then,  and  not 
till  then,  will  men  see  how  true  it  is 
that  to  be  loyal  to  all  of  Nature  they 
must  be  loyal  to  the  part  defined  as 
Spiritual. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Preface.” 

Science:  fits  Hnalogies, 

Science  speaks  to  us  indeed  of 
much  more  than  numbers  of  years. 
It  defines  degrees  of  Tife.  It  explains 
a  widening  Environment.  It  unfolds 
the  relation  between  a  widening  En¬ 
vironment  and  increasing  complexity 


238  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


in  organisms.  And  if  it  has  no  abso¬ 
lute  contribution  to  the  content  of 
Religion,  its  analogies  are  not  limited 
to  a  point.  It  yields  to  Immortality 
— and  this  is  the  most  that  Science 
can  do  in  any  case — the  broad  frame¬ 
work  for  a  doctrine. 

Natural  Law  :  “Eternal  Life.” 

Science  a nb  tbe  Supernatural* 

No  science  contributes  to  another 
without  receiving  a  reciprocal  benefit. 
And  even  as  the  contribution  of  Sci¬ 
ence  to  Religion  is  the  vindication  of 
the  naturalness  of  the  Supernatural, 
so  the  gift  of  Religion  to  Science  is 
the  demonstration  of  the  supernatural¬ 
ness  of  the  Natural.  Thus,  as  the 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


239 


Supernatural  becomes  slowly  Natural, 
will  also  the  Natural  become  slowly 
Supernatural,  until  in  the  impersonal 
authority  of  Law  men  everywhere  rec¬ 
ognize  the  Authority  of  God. 

Natural  La7v  ;  “  Preface.” 

Scientific  jFact. 

No  single  fact  in  Science  has  ever 
discredited  a  fact  in  Religion. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Introduction.” 

Scientific  TTbeologp* 

Can  we  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact 
that  the  religious  opinions  of  man¬ 
kind  are  in  a  state  of  flux  ?  And 
when  we  regard  the  uncertainty  of 
current  beliefs,  the  war  of  creeds,  the 


240 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


havoc  of  inevitable  as  well  as  of  idle 
doubt,  the  reluctant  abandonment  of 
early  faith  by  those  who  would  cherish 
it  longer  if  they  could,  is  it  not  plain 
that  the  one  thing  thinking  men  are 
waiting  for  is  the  introduction  of  Law 
among  the  Phenomena  of  the  Spirit¬ 
ual  World?  When  that  comes  we 
shall  offer  to  such  men  a  truly  scien¬ 
tific  theology.  And  the  Reign  of 
Law  will  transform  the  whole  Spirit¬ 
ual  World  as  it  has  already  trans¬ 
formed  the  Natural  World. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Preface.” 

5elf=&emal. 

No  man  is  called  to  a  life  of  self- 
denial  for  its  own  sake.  It  is  in  order 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


241 


to  a  compensation  which,  though 
sometimes  difficult  to  see,  is  always 
real  and  always  proportionate.  No 
truth,  perhaps,  in  practical  religion 
is  more  lost  sight  of.  We  cherish 
somehow  a  lingering  rebellion  against 
the  doctrine  of  self-denial — as  if  our 
nature  or  our  circumstances  or  our 
conscience  dealt  with  us  severely  in 
loading  us  with  the  daily  cross.  But 
is  it  not  plain,  after  all,  that  the  life 
of  self-denial  is  the  more  abundant 
life — more  abundant  just  in  propor¬ 
tion  to  the  ampler  crucifixion  of  the 
narrower  life  ?  Is  it  not  a  clear  case 
of  exchange — an  exchange,  however, 
where  the  advantage  is  entirely  on 
our  side?  We  give  up  a  correspond- 


242 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


ence  in  which  there  is  a  little  life  to 
enjoy  a  correspondence  in  which  there 
is  an  abundant  life.  What  though  we 
sacrifice  a  hundred  such  correspond¬ 
ences?  We  make  but  the  more  room 
for  the  great  one  that  is  left. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Mortification.” 

Selfishness, 

Obviously,  if  the  mind  turns  away 
from  one  part  of  the  environment,  it 
will  only  do  so  under  some  tempta¬ 
tion  to  correspond  with  another. 
This  temptation,  at  bottom,  can  only 
come  from  one  source — the  love  of 
self.  The  irreligious  man’s  corre¬ 
spondences  are  concentrated  upon 
himself.  He  worships  himself.  Self- 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


243 


gratification  rather  than  self-denial; 
independence  rather  than  submission, 
— these  are  the  rules  of  life.  And 
this  is  at  once  the  poorest  and  the 
commonest  fo~m  of  idolatry. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Death.” 

Self-effacements 

After  you  have  been  kind,  after 
Love  has  stolen  forth  into  the  world 
and  done  its  beautiful  work,  go  back 
into  the  shade  again  and  say  nothing 
about  it  Love  hides  even  from  itself. 
Love  waives  even  self-satisfaction. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

Self=5ufTidena>. 

In  mid- Atlantic,  the  other  day,  the 
“Etruria,”  in  which  I  was  sailing, 


244 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


suddenly  stopped.  Something  had 
gone  wrong  with  the  engines.  There 
we  re  five  hundred  able-bodied  men 
on  board  the  ship.  Do  you  think 
if  we  had  gathered  together  and 
pushed  against  the  mast  w7e  could 
have  pushed  it  on?  When  one  at¬ 
tempts  to  sanctify  himself  by  effort, 
he  is  trying  to  make  his  boat  go  by 
pushing  against  the  mast.  He  is  like 
a  drowning  man  trying  to  lift  himself 
out  of  the  water  by  pulling  at  the 
hair  of  his  own  head.  Christ  held 
up  this  method  almost  to  ridicule 
when  He  said,  u  Which  of  you  by 
taking  thought  can  add  a  cubit  to 
his  stature?”  The  one  redeeming 
feature  of  the  self-sufficient  method 


MY  POINT  OP  VIEW. 


245 


is  this — that  those  who  try  it  find 
out  almost  at  once  that  it  will  not 
gain  the  goal. 

The  Changed  Life . 


Sert3e  a n&  SouL 

The  Life  of  the  senses,  high  and 
low,  may  perfect  itself  in  Nature. 
Kven  the  Life  of  thought  may  find 
a  large  complement  in  surrounding 
things.  But  the  higher  thought  and 
the  conscience  and  the  religious  Life 
can  only  perfect  themselves  in  God. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Environment.” 

Sequences. 

Causes  and  effects  are  eternal  ar¬ 
rangements,  set  in  the  constitution  of 


246  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


the  world,  fixed  beyond  man’s  order¬ 
ing.  What  man  can  do  is  to  place 
himself  in  the  midst  of  a  chain  of 
sequences. 

Pax  Vobiscum. 


Siflbt. 

There  is,  for  example,  a  Sense  of 
Sight  in  the  religious  nature.  Neg¬ 
lect  this,  leave  it  undeveloped,  and 
you  never  miss  it.  You  simply  see 
nothing.  But  develop  it  and  you  see 
God. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Degeneration.” 

Simplicity. 

The  distressing  incompetence  of 
which  most  of  us  are  conscious  if 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


247 


trying  to  work  out  our  spiritual  ex¬ 
perience  is  due,  perhaps,  less  to  the 
diseased  will  which  we  commonly 
blame  for  it  than  to  imperfect  know¬ 
ledge  of  the  right  conditions.  It  does 
not  occur  to  us  how  natural  the  spirit¬ 
ual  is.  We  still  strive  for  some 
strange  transcendent  thing  ;  we  seek 
to  promote  life  by  methods  as  unnat¬ 
ural  as  they  prove  unsuccessful  ;  and 
only  the  utter  incomprehensibility  of 
the  whole  region  prevents  us  seeing 
fully — what  we  already  half  suspect — 
how  completely  we  are  missing  the 
road.  Living  in  the  spiritual  world, 
nevertheless,  is  just  as  simple  as  liv¬ 
ing  in  the  natural  world;  and  it  is  the 
same  kind  of  simplicity.  It  is  the 


248  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


same  kind  of  simplicity,  for  it  is  the 
same  kind  of  world — there  are  not 
two  kinds  of  worlds.  The  conditions 
of  life  in  the  one  are  the  conditions 
of  life  in  the  other.  And  till  these 
conditions  are  sensibly  grasped  as  the 
conditions  of  all  life  it  is  impossible 
that  the  personal  effort  after  the  high¬ 
est  life  should  be  other  than  a  blind 
struggle  carried  on  in  fruitless  sorrow 
and  humiliation. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Environment. n 

S in  a n&  2>eatb, 

If  sin  is  estrangement  from  God, 
this  very  estrangement  is  Death.  It 
is  a  want  of  correspondence.  If  Sin 
is  selfishness,  it  is  conducted  at  the 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


249 


expense  of  life.  Its  wages  are  Death 
— “He  that  loveth  his  life,”  said 
Christ,  “shall  lose  it.” 

Natural  Law  :  “  Death. 

Sin  a nfc  Ibell* 

When  we  find  it  stated  that  “  the 
wages  of  sin  is  death,”  we  are  in  the 
heart  of  the  profoundest  questions  of 
theology.  What  before  was  merely 
4  c  enmity  against  society  ’  ’  becomes 
“  enmity  against  God;”  and  what  was 
‘  ‘  vice  ”  is  c  ‘  sin.  ’  ’  The  conception  of 
a  God  gives  an  altogether  new  color 
to  worldliness  and  vice.  Worldliness 
it  changes  into  heathenism,  vice  into 
blasphemy.  The  carnal  mind,  the 
mind  which  is  turned  away  from  God, 


250 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


which  will  not  correspond  with  God, 
— this  is  not  moral  only,  but  spiritual 
death.  And  Sin,  that  which  separates 
from  God,  which  disobeys  God,  which 
can  not  in  that  state  correspond  with 
God, — this  is  hell. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Death.” 

Sin  is  apostasy. 

To  the  estrangement  of  the  soul 
from  God  the  best  of  theology  traces 
the  ultimate  cause  of  sin.  Sin  is 
simply  apostasy  from  God,  unbelief 
in  God. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Death.” 

Sin  mitbin  XUS. 

The  unforgiven  sins  are  not  away 
in  keeping  somewhere,  to  be  let  loose 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


upon  us  when  we  die  ;  they  are  here, 
within  us,  now.  To-day  brings  the 
resurrection  of  their  past,  to-morrov/ 
of  to-day.  And  the  powers  of  sin, 
to  the  exact  strength  that  we  have 
developed  them,  nearing  their  dread¬ 
ful  culmination  with  every  breath  we 
draw,  are  here,  within  us,  now.  The 
souls  of  some  men  are  already  honey¬ 
combed  through  and  through  with 
the  eternal  consequences  of  neglect, 
so  that  taking  the  natural  and  rational 

View  of  their  case  just  now ,  it  is  sim- 

\ 

ply  inconceivable  that  there  is  any 
escape  just  now .  What  a  fearful 
thing  it  is  to  fall  into  the  hands  of 
the  living  God  !  A  fearful  thing  eve# 
if,  as  the  philosopher  tells  us,  “the 


252 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


hands  of  the  Living  God  are  the  Laws 
of  Nature.” 

Natural  Law  :  “  Degeneration.” 


Sins  Classified 

There  are  two  great  classes  of  Sins 
— sins  of  the  Body  and  sins  of  the 
Disposition.  The  Prodigal  Son  may 
be  taken  as  a  type  of  the  first,  the 
Elder  Brother  of  the  second. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World . 


Sincerity 

Sincerity  of  purpose  endeavors  to 
see  things  as  they  are,  and  rejoices  to 
find  them  better  than  suspicion  feared 
or  calumny  denounced. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


253 


SUgbts* 

There  are  people  who  go  about 
the  world  looking  out  for  slights,  and 
they  are  necessarily  miserable,  for 
they  find  them  at  every  turn  —  es¬ 
pecially  the  imaginary  ones.  One 
has  the  same  pity  for  such  men  as 
for  the  very  poor.  They  are  the  mor¬ 
ally  illiterate.  They  have  had  no 
real  education,  for  they  have  never 
learned  how  to  live. 

Pax  Vobiscum. 


Slowness. 

All  thorough  work  is  slow,  all  true 
development  by  minute,  slight,  and 
insensible  metamorphoses.  The  high- 


254 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


er  the  structure,  moreover,  the  slower 
the  progress. 

The  Changed  Life . 

Soi&iers* 

It  is  for  active  service  soldiers  are 
drilled  and  trained  and  fed  and  armed. 
That  is  why  yon  and  I  are  in  the 
world  at  all — not  to  prepare  to  go  out 
of  it  some  day,  but  to  serve  God  ac¬ 
tively  in  it  now .  It  is  monstrous 
and  shameful  and  cowardly  to  talk 
of  seeking  the  kingdom  last.  It  is 
shirking  duty,  abandoning  one’s  right¬ 
ful  post,  playing  into  the  enemy’s 
hand  by  doing  nothing  to  turn  his 
flank. 


“  First 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


255 


Ubc  Soul  anfc  tbe  %U\>. 

We  are  most  unspiritual  always  in 
dealing  with  the  simplest  spiritual 
things.  A  lily  grows  mysteriously, 
pushing  up  its  solid  weight  of  stem 
and  leaf  in  the  teeth  of  gravity. 
Shaped  into  beauty  by  secret  and  in¬ 
visible  fingers,  the  flower  develops  we 
know  not  how.  But  we  do  not  won- 

I 

der  at  it.  Every  day  the  thing  is 
done  ;  it  is  Nature,  it  is  God.  We 
are  spiritual  enough  at  least  to  under¬ 
stand  that.  But  when  the  soul  rises 
slowly  above  the  world,  pushing  up 
its  delicate  virtues  in  the  teeth  of 
sin,  shaping  itself  mysteriously  into 
the  image  of  Christ,  we  deny  that  the 


256  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


power  is  not  of  man.  A  strong  will, 
we  say,  a  high  ideal,  the  reward  of 
virtue,  Christian  influence,  —  these 
will  account  for  it.  Spiritual  charac¬ 
ter  is  merely  the  product  of  anxious 
work,  self-command,  and  self-denial. 
We  allow,  that  is  to  say,  a  miracle  to 
the  lily,  but  none  to  the  man.  The 
lily  may  grow  ;  the  man  must  fret 
and  toil  and  spin. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Growth.” 

TIbe  Soul* 

Just  as  in  an  organism  we  have 
these  three  things — formative  matter, 
formed  matter,  and  the  forming  prin¬ 
ciple  or  life,  so  in  the  soul  we  have 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


257 


the  old  nature,  the  renewed  nature, 
and  the  transforming  Life. 

Natural  Law:  “Conformity  to  Type.” 

TLhc  Soul  att&  <5o0* 

The  soul,  in  its  highest  sense,  is  a 
vast  capacity  for  God.  It  is  like  a 
curious  chamber  added  on  to  being, 
and  somehow  involving  being  —  a 
chamber  with  elastic  and  contractile 
walls,  which  can  be  expanded,  with 
God  as  its  guest,  illimitably,  but 
which  without  God  shrinks  and  shriv¬ 
els  until  every  vestige  of  the  Divine 
is  gone,  and  God’s  image  is  left  with¬ 
out  God’s  Spirit.  One  cannot  call 
what  is  left  a  soul ;  it  is  a  shrunken, 
useless  organ,  a  capacity  sentenced  to 

I 


258  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


death  by  disuse,  which  droops  as  a 
withered  hand  by  the  side,  and  cum¬ 
bers  nature  like  a  rotted  branch.  Na¬ 
ture  has  her  revenge  upon  neglect  as 
well  as  upon  extravagance.  Misuse, 
with  her,  is  as  mortal  a  sin  as  abuse. 

Natural  Law  :  “Degeneration.” 

SouLlfounger. 

The  protoplasm  in  man  has  a  some¬ 
thing  in  addition  to  its  instincts  or  its 
habits.  It  has  a  capacity  for  God.  In 
this  capacity  for  God  lies  its  recep¬ 
tivity;  it  is  the  very  protoplasm  that 
was  necessary.  The  chamber  is  not 
only  ready  to  receive  the  new  Life, 
but  the  Guest  is  expected,  and,  till 
He  comes,  is  missed.  Till  then  the 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


259 


soul  longs  and  yearns,  wastes  and 
pines,  waving  its  tentacles  piteously 
in  the  empty  air,  feeling  after  God  if 
so  be  that  it  mav  find  Him.  This  is 
not  peculiar  to  the  protoplasm  of  the 
Christian’s  soul.  In  every  land  and 
in  every  age  there  have  been  altars 
to  the  Known  or  Unknown  God.  It 
is  now  agreed  as  a  mere  question  of 
anthropology  that  the  universal  lan¬ 
guage  of  the  human  soul  has  always 
been  “I  perish  with  hunger.”  This 
is  what  fits  it  for  Christ.  There  is  a 
grandeur  in  this  cry  from  the  depths 
which  makes  its  very  unhappiness 
sublime. 

Natural  Law:  “  Conformity  to  Type/* 


26 o 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


Source  of  %itc. 

It  will  be  disputed  by  none  that 
the  Source  of  Life  in  the  Spiritual 
World  is  God.  And  as  the  same  law 
of  Biogenesis  prevails  in  both  spheres, 
we  may  reason  from  the  higher  to  the 
lower,  and  affirm  it  to  be  at  least 
likely  that  the  origin  of  life  there 
has  been  the  same. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Classification.” 

Sources* 

A  single  combat  with  a  special 
sin  does  not  affect  the  root  and  spring 
of  the  disease. 


The  Changed  Life. 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


26l 


Spectacles. 

Many  a  man  thinks  he  is  looking 
at  truth  when  he  is  only  looking  at 
the  spectacles  he  has  put  on  to  see 
it  with.  He  is  looking  at  his  own 
spectacles. 

How  to  Learn  How . 


Spirit. 

Friendship  is  a  spiritual  thing. 
It  is  independent  of  Matter  or  Space 
or  Time.  That  which  I  love  in  my 
friend  is  not  that  which  I  see.  What 
influences  me  in  my  friend  is  not  his 
body,  but  his  spirit. 


The  Changed  Life . 


263 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


Spiritual  OLife  tbe  Easiest* 

The  well-defined  spiritual  life  is 

not  only  the  highest  life,  but  it  is 

also  the  most  easily  lived.  The 

whole  cross  is  more  easily  carried 

* 

than  the  half.  It  is  the  man  who 
tries  to  make  the  best  of  both  worlds 
who  makes  nothing  of  either.  And 
he  who  seeks  to  serve  two  masters 
misses  the  benediction  of  both.  But 
he  who  has  taken  his  stand,  who  has 
drawn  a  boundary-line  sharp  and  deep 
about  his  religious  life,  who  has 
marked  off  all  beyond  as  for  ever  for¬ 
bidden  ground  to  him,  finds  the  yoke 
easy  and  the  burden  light.  For  this 
forbidden  environment  comes  to  be 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW.  263 


as  if  it  were  not.  His  faculties,  fall¬ 
ing  out  of  correspondence,  slowly  lose 
their  sensibilities.  And  the  balm  of 
Death  numbing  his  lower  nature 
releases  him  for  the  scarce  disturbed 
communion  of  a  higher  life.  So  even 
here  to  die  is  gain. 

Natural  Law :  “  Mortification.’ ’ 

Spiritual  ZlDa n. 

He  who  lives  the  Spiritual  Life  has 
a  distinct  kind  of  Life  added  to  all 
the  other  phases  of  Life  which  he 
manifests — a  kind  of  Life  infinitely 
more  distinct  than  is  the  active  ' Life 
of  a  plant  from  the  inertia  of  a  stone. 
The  Spiritual  man  is  more  distinct 
in  point  of  fact  than  is  the  plant  from 


264  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


the  stone.  This  is  the  one  possible 
comparison  in  Nature,  for  it  is  the 
widest  distinction  in  Nature;  but 
compared  with  the  difference  between 
the  Natural  and  the  Spiritual  the 
gulf  which  divides  the  organic  from 
the  inorganic  is  a  hair  s-breadth.  The 
natural  man  belongs  essentially  to 
this  present  order  of  things.  He  is 
endowed  simply  with  a  high  quality 
of  the  natural  animal  Life.  But  it 
is  Life  of  so  poor  a  quality  that  it  is 
not  Life  at  all.  He  that  hath  not  the 
Son  hath  not  Life ;  but  he  that  hath 
the  Son  hath  Life — a  new  and  distinct 
and  supernatural  endowment.  He 
is  not  of  this  world.  He  is  of  the 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW.  265 


timeless  state,  of  Eternity.  It  doth 
not  yet  appear  what  he  shall  be. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Biogenesis.” 

Spiritual  Motto, 

The  Spiritual  World  is  not  a  castle 
in  the  air,  of  an  architecture  unknown 
to  earth  or  heaven,  but  a  fair,  ordered 
realm  furnished  with  many  familiar 
things  and  ruled  by  well-remembered 
Laws. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Introduction.” 

Spirituality. 

The  test  of  spirituality  is  that 
you  cannot  tell  whence  it  cometh  or 
whither  it  goeth.  If  you  can  tell, 
if  you  can  account  for  it  on  philo- 


266 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


sophical  principles,  on  the  doctrine 
of  influence,  on  strength  of  will,  on 
3.  favorable  environment,  it  is  not 
growth.  It  may  be  so  far  a  success; 
it  may  be  a  perfectly  honest,  even 
remarkable  and  praiseworthy  imita¬ 
tion,  but  it  is  not  the  real  thing.  The 
fruits  are  wax,  the  flowers  artificial 
— you  can  tell  whence  it  cometh  and 
whither  it  goeth. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Growth.” 

Stagnation. 

Two  painters  each  painted  a  pict¬ 
ure  to  illustrate  his  conception  of 
rest.  The  first  chose  for  his  scene  a 
still,  lone  lake  among  the  far-off 
mountains.  The  second  threw  on  his 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW.  267 


canvas  a  thundering  waterfall,  with  a 
fragile  birch  tree  bending  over  the 
foam  ;  at  the  fork  of  a  branch,  almost 
wet  with  the  cataract’s  spray,  a  robin 
sat  on  its  nest.  The  first  was  only 
Stagnation ;  the  last  was  Rest .  For 
in  Rest  there  are  always  two  elements 
— tranquillity  and  energy  ;  silence  and 
turbulence  ;  creation  and  destruction  ; 
fearlessness  and  fearfulness.  This  it 
was  in  Christ. 

Pax  Vobiscum. 


Stature. 

As  the  branch  ascends,  and  the 
bud  bursts,  and  the  fruit  reddens 
under  the  co-operation  of  influences 
from  the  outside  air,  so  man  rises 


268 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


to  the  higher  stature  under  invisible 
pressures  from  without. 

The  Changed  Life , 


Submission* 

O  preposterous  and  vain  man, 
thou  who  couldest  not  make  a  finger¬ 
nail  of  thy  body,  thinkest  thou  to 
fashion  this  wonderful,  mysterious, 
subtle  soul  of  thine  after  the  ineffable 
Image?  Wilt  thou  ever  permit  thy¬ 
self  to  be  conformed  to  the  Image  of 
the  Son?  Wilt  thou,  who  canst  not 
add  a  cubit  to  thy  stature,  submit  to 
be  raised  by  the  Type-Life  within 
thee  to  the  perfect  stature  of  Christ  ? 

Natural  Law  :  “  Conformity  to  Type.” 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW.  269 


Sweetening* 

Souls  are  made  sweet  not  by  taking 
the  acid  fluids  out,  but  by  putting 
something  in — a  great  Love,  a  new 
Spirit,  the  Spirit  of  Christ. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


teaching* 

Children  do  not  need  Laws,  ex¬ 
cept  Laws  in  the  sense  of  command¬ 
ments.  They  repose  with  simplicity 
on  authority,  and  ask  no  questions. 
But  there  comes  a  time,  as  the  world 
reaches  its  manhood,  when  they  will 
ask  questions,  and  stake,  moreover, 
everything  on  the  answers.  That 


270  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

time  is  now.  Hence  we  must  exhibit 
our  doctrines,  not  lying  athwart  the 
lines  of  the  world’s  thinking,  in  a 
place  reserved,  and  therefore  shunned, 
for  the  Great  Exception;  but  in  their 
kinship  to  all  truth  and  in  their  Law- 
relation  to  the  whole  of  Nature. 
This  is,  indeed,  simply  following  out 
the  system  of  teaching  begun  by 
Christ  Himself.  And  what  is  the 
search  for  Spiritual  truth  in  the  Laws 
of  Nature  but  an  attempt  to  utter 
the  parables  which  have  been  hid  so 
long  in  the  world  around  without  a 
preacher,  and  to  tell  men  once  more 
that  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  like 
unto  this  and  to  that? 


Natural  Law  :  “  Introduction.” 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


271 


temper:  Its  3£\nls* 

No  form  of  vice — not  worldliness, 
not  greed  of  gold,  not  drunkenness 
itself — does  more  to  un -Christianize 
society  than  evil  temper.  For  embit¬ 
tering  life,  for  breaking  up  com¬ 
munities,  for  destroying  the  most 
sacred  relationships,  for  devastating 
homes,  for  withering  up  men  and 
women,  for  taking  the  bloom  of 
childhood — in  short,  for  sheer  gratu¬ 
itous  misery-producing  power — this 
influence  stands  alone. 

The  G 7' e ate st  Thing  in  the  World . 

TIemper :  Ifts  1Re*>eIatton. 

Temper  is  significant.  It  is  not 
in  what  it  is  alone,  but  in  what  it 


272 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


reveals.  It  is  a  test  for  love,  a  symp¬ 
tom,  a  revelation  of  an  unloving 
nature  at  bottom.  It  is  the  inter¬ 
mittent  fever  which  bespeaks  uninter- 
mittent  disease  within;  the  occasional 
bubble  escaping  to  the  surface  which 
betrays  some  rottenness  underneath; 
a  sample  of  the  most  hidden  products 
of  the  soul  dropped  involuntarily 
when  off  one’s  guard;  in  a  word,  the 
lightning  form  of  a  hundred  hideous 
and  un-Christian  sins.  For  a  want  of 
patience,  a  want  of  kindness,  a  want  of 
generosity,  a  want  of  courtesy,  a  want 
of  unselfishness,  are  all  instantane¬ 
ously  symbolized  in  one  flash  of 
Temper. 


The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


273 


^Temperance* 

A  rabid  Temperance  advocate  is 
often  the  poorest  of  creatures,  flour¬ 
ishing  on  a  single  virtue,  and  quite 
oblivious  that  his  Temperance  is 
making  a  worse  man  of  him,  and 
not  a  better. 

The  Changed  Life. 


temptation* 

Spiritual  life  is  the  sum  total  of 
the  functions  which  resist  sin.  The 
soul’s  atmosphere  is  the  daily  trial, 
circumstance,  and  temptation  of  the 
world.  And  as  it  is  life  alone  which 
gives  the  plant  power  to  utilize  the 
elements,  and  as,  without  it,  they 


274 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


destroy  it,  so  it  is  the  spiritual  life 
alone  which  gives  the  soul  power  to 
utilize  temptation  and  trial;  and 
without  it  they  destroy  the  soul. 
How  shall  we  escape  if  we  refuse  to 
exercise  these  functions — in  other 
words,  if  we  neglect? 

Natural  Law  :  “  Degeneration.” 


Ube  IRew  Testament. 

Take  the  New  Testament.  There 
were  four  lives  of  Christ.  One  was 
in  Rome  ;  one  was  in  Southern  Italy; 
one  was  in  Palestine  ;  one  in  Asia 
Minor.  There  were  twenty-one  let¬ 
ters.  Five  were  in  Greece  and  Mace¬ 
donia  ;  five  in  Asia  ;  one  in  Rome  ; 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


275 


the  rest  were  in  the  pockets  of  private 
individuals.  Theophilus  had  Acts. 
They  were  collected  undesignedly. 
For  example,  the  letter  to  the  Gala¬ 
tians  was  written  to  the  Church  in  Ga¬ 
latia.  Somebody  would  make  a  copy 
or  two,  and  put  it  into  the  hands  of 
the  members  of  the  different  churches, 
and  they  would  find  their  way  not 
only  to  the  churches  in  Galatia,  but 
after  an  interval  to  nearly  all  the 
churches.  In  those  days  the  Chris¬ 
tians  scattered  up  and  down  through 
the  world  exchanged  copies  of  those 
letters,  very  much  as  geologists  up 
and  down  the  world  exchange  speci¬ 
mens  of  minerals  at  the  present  time, 
or  entomologists  exchange  specimens 


276  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


of  butterflies.  And  after  a  long  time 
a  number  of  the  books  began  to  be 
pretty  well  known.  In  the  third  cen¬ 
tury  the  New  Testament  consisted  of 
the  following  books  :  The  four  Gos¬ 
pels,  Acts,  thirteen  letters  of  Paul, 
I.  John,  I.  Peter,  and,  in  addition,  the 
Epistles  of  Barnabas  and  Hennas. 
This  was  not  called  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment,  but  the  Christian  Library. 
Then  these  last  books  were  discarded. 
They  ceased  to  be  regarded  as  upon 
the  same  level  as  the  others.  In  the 
fourth  century  the  canon  was  closed 
— that  is  to  say,  a  list  was  made  up 
of  the  books  which  were  to  be  regard¬ 
ed  as  canonical.  And  then,  long  after 
that,  they  were  stitched  together  and 


4 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


2  77 


made  up  into  one  book — hundreds  of 
years  after  that. 

The  Study  of  thp  Bible. 

Ubeism* 

Theism  is  the  easiest  of  all  religions 
to  get,  but  the  most  difficult  to  keep. 
Individuals  have  kept  it,  but  nations 
never.  Socrates  and  Aristotle,  Cicero 
and  Epictetus,  had  a  theistic  religion ; 
Greece  and  Rome  had  none.  And 
even  after  getting  what  seems  like  a 
firm  place  in  the  minds  of  men  its  un¬ 
stable  equilibrium  sooner  or  later  be¬ 
trays  itself.  On  the  one  hand,  The¬ 
ism  has  always  fallen  into  the  wildest 
Polytheism,  or,  on  the  other,  into  the 
blankest  Atheism. 


Natural  Law  :  “  Death.” 


278  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


V 


Ubeoloolcai  %a\vs. 

The  greatest  among  the  Theologi¬ 
cal  Laws  are  the  Laws  of  Nature  in 
disguise.  It  will  be  the  splendid  task 
of  the  Theology  of  the  future  to  take 
off  the  mask  and  disclose  to  a  wan¬ 
ing  scepticism  the  naturalness  of  the 
supernatural. 

Natural  Law:  “  Introduction,” 


ITbeolooles* 


Theologies — and  I  am  not  speak¬ 
ing  disrespectfully  of  theology;  theol¬ 
ogy  is  as  scientific  a  thing  as  any 
other  science  of  facts — but  theologies 
are  human  versions  of  Divine  truths, 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


279 


and  hence  the  varieties  of  the  ver¬ 
sions  and  the  inconsistencies  of  them. 

How  to  Learn  How . 

XTbeologp  anfc  Science* 

One  by  one,  slowly  through  the 
centuries,  the  Sciences  have  crystal¬ 
lized  into  geometrical  form,  each  form 
not  only  perfect  in  itself,  but  perfect, 
in  its  relation  to  all  other  forms. 
Many  forms  had  to  be  perfected  be¬ 
fore  the  form  of  the  Spiritual.  The 
Inorganic  has  to  be  worked  out  before 
the  Organic,  the  Natural  before  the 
Spiritual.  Theology  at  present  has 
merely  an  ancient  and  provisional 
philosophic  form.  By  and  by  it  will 
be  seen  whether  it  be  not  susceptible 


28o 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


of  another.  For  Theology  must  pass 
through  the  necessary  stages  of  prog¬ 
ress,  like  any  other  science. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Introduction.” 

UhixiQB. 

u  SEEKEST  thou  great  things  for 
thyself?”  said  the  prophet.  u Seek 
them  not"  Why?  Because  there 
is  no  greatness  in  things.  Things 
cannot  be  great.  The  only  greatness 
is  unselfish  love. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

ZTbougbt  anb  Bctton, 

It  is  a  good  thing  to  think;  it  is 
a  better  thing  to  work.  It  is  a  better 
thing  to  do  good. 


How  to  Learn  How. 


MY  POINT  OP  VIEW. 


2bl 


^deration* 

If  we  can  carry  away  the  mere 
lessons  of  toleration,  and  leave  behind 
us  our  censoriousness,  and  criticalness, 
and  harsh  judgments  upon  one  anoth¬ 
er,  and  excommunicating  of  every¬ 
body  except  those  who  think  exactly 
as  we  do,  the  time  we  shall  spend 
here  will  not  be  the  least  useful  parts 
of  our  lives. 

How  to  Learn  How. 

Uoucbiness. 

Men  harness  themselves  to  the 
work  and  stress  of  the  world  in 
clumsy  and  unnatural  ways.  The 
harness  they  put  on  is  antiquated. 


282 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


A  rough,  ill-fitted  collar  at  the  best, 
they  make  its  strain  and  friction 
past  enduring  by  placing  it  where 
the  neck  is  most  sensitive;  and  by 
mere  continuous  irritation  this  sensi¬ 
tiveness  increases  until  the  whole 
nature  is  quick  and  sore.  This  is 
the  origin,  among  other  things,  of 
a  disease  called  touchiness — a  dis¬ 
ease  which,  in  spite  of  its  inno¬ 
cent  name,  is  one  of  the  gravest 
sources  of  restlessness  in  the  world. 
Touchiness,  when  it  becomes  chronic, 
is  a  morbid  condition  of  the  inward 
disposition.  It  is  self-love  inflamed 
to  the  acute  point;  conceit  with  a  hair- 
trigger. 


Pax  Vobiscum. 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW.  283 


transfiguration* 

I  CONFESS  that  even  when  in  the 
first  dim  vision  the  organizing  hand 
of  Law  moved  among  the  unordered 
truths  of  my  Spiritual  World,  poor 
and  scantily  furnished  as  it  was,  there 
seemed  to  come  over  it  the  beauty  of 
a  transfiguration.  The  change  was 
as  great  as  from  the  old  chaotic  world 
of  Pythagoras  to  the  symmetrical  and 
harmonious  universe  of  Newton. 

Natural  Law  :  “Preface.” 

trials* 

Great  trials  come  at  lengthened 
intervals,  and  we  rise  to  breast  them ; 
but  it  is  the  petty  friction  of  our 


*484  my  point  of  view. 


-every-day  life  with  one  another — the 
jar  of  business  or  of  work,  the  dis¬ 
cord  of  the  domestic  circle,  the  col¬ 
lapse  of  our  ambition,  the  crossing 
of  our  will,  or  the  taking  down  of 
our  conceit — which  makes  inward 
peace  impossible. 

Pax  Vobiscum. 


Xtrust 

To  be  trusted  is  to  be  saved.  And 
if  we  try  to  influence  or  elevate  others, 
we  shall  soon  see  that  success  is  in 
proportion  to  their  belief  of  our  belief 
in  them.  For  the  respect  of  another 
is  the  first  restoration  of  the  self-re¬ 
spect  a  man  has  lost  ;  our  ideal  of 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW.  285 


what  he  is  becomes  to  him  the  hope 
and  pattern  of  what  he  may  become. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


Urutb* 

He  who  loves  will  love  Truth  not 
less  than  men.  He  will  rejoice  in  the 
Truth — rejoice  not  in  what  he  has 
been  taught  to  believe ;  not  in  this 
Church’s  doctrine  or  in  that  ;  not  in 
this  ism  or  in  that  ism  ;  but  u  in  the 
Truth.”  He  will  accept  only  what  is 
real;  he  will  strive  to  get  at  facts;  he 
will  search  for  Truth  with  a  humble 
and  unbiassed  mind,  and  cherish 
whatever  he  finds  at  any  sacrifice. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World, 


286 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


Urutb:  Ibow  Jfounb. 

The  faculty  of  selecting  truth  at 
first  hand  and  appropriating  it  for 
one’s  self  is  a  lawful  possession  to 
every  Christian.  Rightly  exercised 
it  conveys  to  him  truth  in  its  freshest 
form  ;  it  offers  him  the  opportunity 
of  verifying  doctrines  for  himself;  it 
makes  religion  personal  ;  it  deepens 
and  intensifies  the  only  convictions 
that  are  worth  deepening  —  those, 
namely,  which  are  honest  ;  and  it 
supplies  the  mind  with  a  basis  of  cer¬ 
tainty  in  religion.  But  if  all  one's 
truth  is  derived  by  imbibition  from 
the  Church,  the  faculties  for  receiving 
truth  are  not  only  undeveloped,  but 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


287 

one’s  whole  view  of  truth  becomes 
distorted.  He  who  abandons  the  per- 
sonal  search  for  truth,  under  what¬ 
ever  pretext,  abandons  truth.  The 
very  word  truth,  by  becoming  the 
limited  possession  of  a  guild,  ceases 
to  have  any  meaning  ;  and  faith, 
which  can  only  be  founded  on  truth, 
gives  way  to  credulity,  resting  on 
mere  opinion. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Parasitism.” 


Urutb  not  a  Blrtbtujbt. 

There  is  no  more  important  lesson 
that  we  have  to  carry  with  us  than 
that  truth  is  not  to  be  found  in  what 
I  have  been  taught.  That  is  not 


288 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


truth.  Truth  is  not  what  I  have  been 
taught.  If  it  were  so,  that  would  ap¬ 
ply  to  the  Mormon,  it  would  apply  to 
the  Brahman,  it  would  apply  to  the 
Buddhist.  Truth  would  be  to  every¬ 
body  just  what  he  had  been  taught. 
Therefore  let  us  dismiss  from  our 
minds  the  predisposition  to  regard 
that  which  we  have  been  brought  up 
in  as  being  necessarily  the  truth.  I 
must  say  it  is  very  hard  to  shake  one’s 
self  free  altogether  from  that.  I  sup¬ 
pose  it  is  impossible. 

How  to  Learn  How. 

TTrutb  ZTesteb. 

The  test  of  value  of  the  different 
verities  of  truth  depends  upon  one 


MY  POINT  OK  VIEW.  289 


thing :  whether  they  have  or  have 
not  a  sanctifying  power.  Christ  said, 
‘  ‘  Sanctify  them  through  Thy  truth. 
Thy  Word  is  Truth.  ’  ’  Now,  the  value 
of  any  question — the  value  of  any 
theological  question  —  depends  upon 
whether  it  has  a  sanctifying  influence. 
If  it  has  not,  don’t  bother  about  it. 
Don’t  let  it  disturb  your  minds  until 
you  have  exhausted  all  truths  that 
have  sanctification  within  them.  If 
a  truth  makes  a  man  a  better  man, 
then  let  him  focus  his  instrument 
upon  it  and  get  all  the  acquaintance 
with  it  he  can.  If  it  is  the  profane 
babbling  of  science,  falsely  so  called, 
or  anything  that  has  an  injurious 
effect  upon  the  moral  and  spirit- 

K 


290 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


ual  nature  of  a  man,  it  is  better  let 
alone. 

How  to  Learn  How. 

Z\)c  Mbole  Urutb, 

I  ONCE  heard  of  some  blind  men 
who  were  taken  to  see  a  menagerie. 
They  had  gone  around  the  animals, 
and  four  of  them  were  allowed  to 
touch  an  elephant  as  they  went  past. 
They  were  discussing  afterward  what 
kind  of  a  creature  the  elephant  was. 
One  man,  who  had  touched  its  tail, 
said  the  elephant  was  like  a  rope. 
Another  of  the  blind  men,  who  had 
touched  his  hind  limb,  said,  uNo 
such  thing !  the  elephant  is  like  the 
tiunk  of  a  tree.  n  Another,  who  had 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


29I 


felt  its  sides,  said,  “That  is  all  rub¬ 
bish.  An  elephant  is  a  thing  like  a 
wall.”  And  the  fourth,  who  had  felt 
its  ear,  said  that  an  elephant  was  like 
none  of  those  things  ;  it  was  like  a 
leather  bag.  Now,  men  look  at  truth 
at  different  bits  of  it,  and  they  see  dif¬ 
ferent  things,  of  course,  and  they  are 
very  apt  to  imagine  that  the  thing 
which  they  have  seen  is  the  whole 
affair — the  whole  thing.  In  reality, 
we  can  only  see  a  very  little  bit  at  a 
time  ;  and  we  must,  I  think,  learn  to 
believe  that  other  men  can  see  bits  of 
truth  as  well  as  ourselves.  Your 
views  are  just  what  you  see  with  your 
own  eyes  ;  and  my  views  are  just  what 
I  see  ;  and  what  I  see  depends  on  just 


292 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


where  I  stand,  and  what  you  see  de¬ 
pends  on  just  where  you  stand  ;  and 
truth  is  very  much  bigger  than  an 
elephant,  and  we  are  very  much 
blinder  than  any  of  those  blind  men 
as  we  come  to  look  at  it. 

How  to  Learn  How. 

THmt£. 

Character  is  a  unity,  and  all  the 
virtues  must  advance  together  to 

man. 

The  Changed  Life. 

XTbe  Tflniversal  Slanguage. 

You  can  take  nothing  greater  to 
the  heathen  world  than  the  impress 
and  reflection  of  the  Love  of  God 


make  the  perfect 

k- 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


293 


upon  your  character.  That  is  the 
universal  language. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


XLhc  mnftnowable* 

The  very  confession  of  the  Un¬ 
knowable  is  itself  the  dull  recogni¬ 
tion  of  an  Environment  for  which 
they  feel  they  lack  the  correspond¬ 
ence.  It  is  this  want  that  makes 
their  God  the  Unknown  God.  And 
it  is  this  that  makes  them  dead. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Death/ 9 


XPlnrecoGm3ableness. 

Is  it  hopeless  to  point  out  that  one 
of  the  most  recognizable  character- 


294 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


istics  of  life  is  its  unrecognizableness, 
and  that  the  very  token  of  its  spiritual 
nature  lies  in  its  being  beyond  the 
grossness  of  our  eyes? 

Natural  Law  :  “  Conformity  to  Type.” 


TUnrest* 

What  are  the  chief  causes  of 
Unrest  ?  If  you  know  yourself,  you 
will  answer  Pride,  Selfishness,  Am¬ 
bition.  As  you  look  back  upon  the 
past  years  of  your  life,  is  it  not  true 
that  its  unhappiness  has  chiefly  come 
from  the  succession  of  personal  morti¬ 
fications  and  almost  trivial  disappoint¬ 
ments  which  the  intercourse  of  life 
has  brought  you? 


Pax  Vo  bis  cum. 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


295 


) 


Ubc  TTlnseen* 

The  true  greatness  of  Law  lies  in 
its  vision  of  the  Unseen.  Law  in  the 
visible  is  the  invisible  in  the  visible. 

Natural  Law  :  “Introduction.” 

Ube  ‘dnseen  'Clntverse* 

IT  is  not  necessary  to  reproduce 
here  in  detail  the  argument  which 
has  been  stated  recently  with  so 
much  force  in  the  Unseen  Universe . 
The  conclusion  of  that  work  remains 
still  unassailed,  that  the  visible  uni¬ 
verse  has  been  developed  from  the 
unseen.  Apart  from  the  general 
proof  from  the  Law  of  Continuity, 
the  more  special  grounds  of  such 


296  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


a  conclusion  are,  first,  the  fact  insisted 
upon  by  Herschel  and  Clerk-Maxwell, 
that  the  atoms  of  which  the  visible 

universe  is  built  up  bear  distinct 

/ 

marks  of  being  manufactured  articles; 
and,  secondly,  the  origin  in  time  of 
the  visible  universe  is  implied  from 
known  facts  with  regard  to  the  dissi¬ 
pation  of  energy.  With  the  gradual 
aggregation  of  mass  the  energy  of 
the  universe  has  been  slowly  disap¬ 
pearing,  and  this  loss  of  energy  must 
go  on  until  none  remains.  There  is, 
therefore,  a  point  in  time  when  the 
energy  of  the  universe  must  come  to 
an  end;  and  that  which  has  its  end 
in  time  cannot  be  infinite — it  must 
also  have  had  a  beginning  in  time. 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


297 


Hence  the  unseen  existed  before  the 
seen. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Introduction.’ ’ 


TUtiselftebness, 

I  heard  this  definition  the  other 
day  of  a  Christian  man  by  a  cynic  : 
4  ‘  A  Christian  man  is  a  man  whose 
great  aim  in  life  is  a  selfish  desire  to 
save  his  own  soul,  who,  in  order  to 
do  that,  goes  regularly  to  church,  and 
whose  supreme  hope  is  to  get  to 
heaven  when  he  dies.”  This  re¬ 
minds  one  of  Professor  Huxley’s  ex¬ 
amination  paper  in  which  the  ques¬ 
tion  was  put — u  What  is  a  lobster?” 
One  student  replied  that  a  lobster 
was  a  red  fish  which  moves  backward. 


298  MY  POINT  OP  VIEW. 


The  examiner  noted  that  this  was  a 
very  good  answer  but  for  three  things: 
In  the  first  place,  a  lobster  was  not  a 
fish;  second,  it  was  not  red;  and  third, 
it  did  not  move  backward.  If  there  is 
anything  that  a  Christian  is  not,  it  is 
one  who  has  a  selfish  desire  to  save 
his  own  soul.  The  one  thing  which 
Christianity  tries  to  extirpate  from 
a  man’s  nature  is  selfishness,  even 
though  it  be  the  losing  of  his  own 
soul. 

What  is  a  Christian  ? 

Christianity,  as  we  understand  it 
from  Christ,  appeals  to  the  generous 
side  of  a  young  man’s  nature,  and  not 
to  the  selfish  side.  In  the  new  ver¬ 
sion  of  the  New  Testament  the  word 


MY  POINT  OP  VIEW. 


299 


* 4 soul”  is  always  translated  in  this 
connection  by  the  word  ‘  ‘  life.  ’  ’  That 
marks  a  revolution  in  popular  theol¬ 
ogy,  and  it  will  make  a  revolution  in 
every  Young  Man’s  Christian  Associ¬ 
ation  in  the  country  where  it  comes 
to  be  seen  that  a  man’s  Christianity 
does  not  consist  in  merely  saving  his 
own  soul,  but  in  sanctifying  and  puri¬ 
fying  the  lives  of  his  fellow-men. 

What  is  a  Christian  ? 

Ube  Wne. 

The  Vine  was  the  Eastern  symbol 
of  Joy.  It  was  its  fruit  that  made 
glad  the  heart  of  man.  Yet,  however 
innocent  that  gladness — for  the  ex¬ 
pressed  juice  of  the  grape  was  the 


3°° 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


common  drink  at  every  peasant’s 
board — the  gladness  was  only  a  gross 
and  passing  thing.  This  was  not 
true  happiness,  and  the  vine  of  the 
Palestine  vineyards  was  not  the  true 
vine.  Christ  was  u  the  true  Vine.” 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


IDttalits* 

Vitality  has  much  in  common 
with  such  forces  as  magnetism  and 
electricity,  but  there  is  one  inviolable 
distinction  between  them — that  Life 
is  permanently  fixed  and  rooted  in  the 
organism.  The  doctrines  of  conser¬ 
vation  and  transformation  of  energy, 
that  is  to  say,  do  not  hold  for  Vitality. 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


301 


r —  1  - - - - 

The  electrician  can  demagnetize  a  bar 
of  iron — that  is,  he  can  transfer  its 
energy  of  magnetism  into  something 
else — heat,  or  motion,  or  light — and 
then  re-form  these  back  into  magnet¬ 
ism.  For  magnetism  has  no  root,  no 
individuality,  no  fixed  indwelling. 
But  the  biologist  cannot  devitalize  a 
plant  or  an  animal  and  revivify  it 
again. 

Natziral  Law  :  “  Conformity  to  Type.” 

IPocabulartes* 

Being  dependent  for  our  vocab¬ 
ulary  on  images,  if  an  altogether  new 
and  foreign  set  of  Laws  existed  in  the 
Spiritual  World,  they  could  never 
take  shaoe  as  definite  ideas  from  mere 


302 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


want  of  words.  The  hypothetical 
new  Laws  which  may  remain  to  be 
discovered  in  the  domain  of  Natural 
or  Mental  Science  may  afford  some 
index  of  these  hypothetical  higher 
Laws,  but  this  would  of  course  mean 
that  the  latter  were  no  longer  foreign 
but  in  analogy,  or,  likelier  still,  iden¬ 
tical.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Nat¬ 
ural  Laws  of  the  future  have  nothing 
to  say  of  these  higher  Laws,  what  can 
be  said  of  them  ?  Where  is  the  lan¬ 
guage  to  come  from  in  which  to  frame 
them?  If  their  disclosures  could  be 
of  any  practical  use  to  us,  we  may  be 
sure  the  clue  to  them,  the  revelation 
of  them,  in  some  way  would  have 
been  put  into  Nature.  If,  on  the  con- 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


303 


trary,  they  are  not  to  be  of  immediate 
use  to  man,  it  is  better  they  should 
not  embarrass  him.  After  all,  then, 
our  knowledge  of  higher  Law  must  be 
limited  by  our  knowledge  of  the  lower. 

Natural  Law  :  “Introduction.” 

IPoices* 

There  is  the  voice  of  God  and  the 
voice  of  Nature.  I  cannot  be  wrong 
if  I  listen  to  them.  Sometimes,  when 
uncertain  of  a  voice  from  its  very 
loudness,  we  catch  the  missing  syl¬ 
lable  in  the  echo.  In  God  and  Nature 
we  have  Voice  and  Echo.  When  I 
hear  both,  I  am  assured.  My  sense 
of  hearing  does  not  betray  me  twice. 
I  recognize  the  Voice  in  the  Echo  : 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


304 

the  Echo  makes  me  certain  of  the 
Voice  ;  I  listen  and  I  know. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Eternal  Life.” 

Mb  ole  or  ftmlt 

The  failure  to  regard  the  exclusive 
claims  of  Christ  as  more  than  acci¬ 
dental,  rhetorical,  or  ideal;  the  fail¬ 
ure  to  discern  the  essential  difference 
between  his  Kingdom  and  all  other 
systems  based  on  the  lines  of  natural 
religion,  and  therefore  merely  Organic; 
in  a  word,  the  general  neglect  of  the 
claims  of  Christ  as  the  Founder  of 
a  new  and  higher  Kingdom, — these 
have  taken  the  very  heart  from  the 
religion  of  Christ,  and  left  its  evangel 
without  power  to  impress  or  bless  the 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


3°5 

world.  Until  even  religious  men  see 
the  uniqueness  of  Christ’s  society, 
until  they  acknowledge  to  the  full 
extent  its  claim  to  be  nothing  less 
than  a  new  Kingdom,  they  will  con¬ 
tinue  the  hopeless  attempt  to  live  for 
two  Kingdoms  at  once.  And  hence 
the  value  of  a  more  explicit  classifica¬ 
tion.  For  probably  the  most  of  the 
difficulties  of  trying  to  live  the  Chris¬ 
tian  life  arise  from  attempting  to 
half-live  it. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Classification.” 

Mbs? 

The  authority  of  Authority  is 
waning.  This  is  a  plain  fact.  And 
it  was  inevitable.  Authority — man’s 


306  my  point  of  view. 


Authority,  that  is — is  for  children. 
And  there  necessarily  comes  a  time 
when  they  add  to  the  question  What 
shall  I  do  ?  or  What  shall  I  believe  ? 
the  adult’s  interrogation  —  Why? 
Now,  this  question  is  sacred,  and 
must  be  answered. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Introduction/* 

WUHpo\vet\ 

Each  day,  each  hour,  demands 
a  further  motion  and  readjustment 
for  the  soul.  A  telescope  in  an 
observatory  follows  a  star  by  clock¬ 
work,  but  the  clockwork  of  the  soul 
is  called  the  Will .  Hence,  while  the 
soul  in  passivity  reflects  the  Image 
of  the  Lord,  the  Will  in  intense 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


3°7 


activity  holds  the  mirror  in  position, 
lest  the  drifting  motion  of  the  world 
bear  it  beyond  the  line  of  vision. 
To  u  follow  Christ”  is  largely  to 
keep  the  soul  in  such  position  as 
will  allow  for  the  motion  of  the  earth. 
And  this  calculated  counteracting  of 
the  movements  of  a  world,  this  hold¬ 
ing  of  the  mirror  exactly  opposite  to 
the  Mirrored,  this  steadying  of  the 
faculties  unerringly,  through  cloud 
and  earthquake,  fire  and  sword,  is 
the  stupendous  co-operating  labor  of 
the  Will. 

The  Changed  Life . 

Wi  s&onu 

In  the  Spiritual  World  he  will  be 
wise  who  courts  acquaintance  with 


308  my  point  of  view. 


the  most  ordinary  and  transparent 
facts  in  Nature. 

Aratural  Law  :  “  Environment.” 

rnovb. 

If  God  is  spending  work  upon 
a  Christian,  let  him  be  still  and  know 
that  it  is  God.  And  if  he  wants 
work,  he  will  find  it  there — in  the 
being  still. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Growth.” 

All  the  work  of  the  world  is 
merely  a  taking  advantage  of  ener¬ 
gies  already  there. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Growth.” 

Morft  ant>  (Srowtb* 

What  is  the  relation  between 
growth  and  work  in  a  boy  ?  Con- 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


3°9 


sciously,  there  is  no  relation  at  all. 
The  boy  never  thinks  of  connecting 
his  work  with  his  growth.  Work, 
in  fact,  is  one  thing,  and  growth 
another;  and  it  is  so  in  the  spiritual 
life.  If  it  be  asked,  therefore,  Is  the 
Christian  wrong  in  these  ceaseless 
and  agonizing  efforts  after  growth? 
the  answer  is,  Yes,  he  is  quite  wrong, 
or  at  least  he  is  quite  mistaken. 
When  a  boy  takes  a  meal  or  denies 
himself  indigestible  things,  he  does 
not  say,  UA11  this  will  minister  to 
my  growth or  when  he  runs  a  race 
he  does  not  say,  u  This  will  help  the 
next  cubit  of  my  stature.”  It  may 
or  it  may  not  be  true  that  these 
things  will  help  his  stature,  but  if  he 


3IG 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


thinks  of  this,  his  idea  of  growth  is 
morbid.  And  this  is  the  point  we 
are  dealing  with.  His  anxiety  here 
is  altogether  irrelevant  and  superflu¬ 
ous.  Nature  is  far  more  bountiful 
than  we  think.  When  she  gives  us 
energy,  she  asks  none  of  it  back  to 
expend  on  our  own  growTth.  She 
will  attend  to  that.  “Give  your 
work/’  she  says,  “and  your  anxiety 
to  others;  trust  me  to  add  the  cubits 
to  your  stature.” 

Natural  Law  :  “  Growth.” 

B  “CdorlC*  of  Cbance. 

There  used  to  be  a  children’s  book 
which  bore  the  fascinating  title  of 
The  Chance  World.  It  described  a 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


311 

world  in  which  everything  happened 
by  chance.  The  sun  might  rise,  or  it 
might  not  ;  or  it  might  appear  at  any 
hour,  or  the  moon  might  come  up  in¬ 
stead.  When  children  were  born  they 
might  have  one  head  or  a  dozen  heads, 
and  those  heads  might  not  be  on  their 
shoulders — there  might  be  no  shoul¬ 
ders — but  arranged  about  the  limbs.  If 
one  jumped  up  in  the  air,  it  was  impos¬ 
sible  to  predict  whether  he  would  ever 
come  down  again.  That  he  came  down 
yesterday  was  no  guarantee  that  he 
would  do  it  next  time.  For  every  day 
antecedent  and  consequent  varied,  and 
gravitation  and  everything  else  chang¬ 
ed  from  hour  to  hour.  To-day  a 
child’s  body  might  be  so  light  that  it 


312 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


was  impossible  for  it  to  descend  from 
its  chair  to  the  floor  ;  but  to-morrow, 
in  attempting  the  experiment  again, 
the  impetus  might  drive  it  through  a 
three-story  house  and  dash  it  to  pieces 
somewhere  near  the  centre  of  the 
earth.  In  this  chance  world  cause 
and  effect  were  abolished.  Law  was 
annihilated.  And  the  result  to  the 
inhabitants  of  such  a  world  could 
only  be  that  reason  would  be  impossi¬ 
ble.  It  would  be  a  lunatic  world  with 
a  population  of  lunatics. 

Now,  this  is  no  more  than  a  real 
picture  of  what  the  world  would  be 
without  Law,  or  the  universe  without 
Continuity. 


Natural  Law  :  “  Preface.” 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


3I3 

TLftC  MorlO. 

There  is  a  great  deal  in  the  world 
that  is  delightful  and  beautiful,  there 
is  a  great  deal  in  it  that  is  great  and 
engrossing  ;  but  it  will  not  last.  All 
that  is  in  the  world — the  lust  of  the 
eye,  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  and  the 
pride  of  life — are  but  for  a  little  while. 
Iyove  not  the  world  therefore.  Noth¬ 
ing  that  it  contains  is  wTorth  the  life 
and  consecration  of  an  immortal  soul. 
The  immortal  soul  must  give  itself  to 
something  that  is  immortal. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

IT  is  u  life  in  this  world  ’ ’  that  is  to 
be  hated.  For  life  in  this  world  im¬ 
plies  conformity  to  this  world.  It  may 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


3I4 

not  mean  pursuing  worldly  pleasures 
or  mixing  with  worldly  sets,  but 
a  subtler  thing  than  that — a  silent 
deference  to  worldly  opinion  ;  an  al¬ 
most  unconscious  lowering  of  relig¬ 
ious  tone  to  the  level  of  the  worldly- 
religious  world  around  ;  a  subdued  re¬ 
sistance  to  the  soul’s  delicate  prompt¬ 
ings  to  greater  consecration,  out  of 
deference  to  ‘ 4  breadth  ’  ’  or  fear  of 
ridicule.  These,  and  such  things, 
are  what  Christ  tells  us  we  must  hate. 
For  these  things  are  of  the  very  es¬ 
sence  of  worldliness. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Eternal  Life.” 

tlbe  *CXaorlC>  a  Sbabow. 

$ 

The  world  is  only  a  tiling  that  is; 
it  is  not.  It  is  a  thing  that  teaches, 


I 1  I 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW.  3x5 

yet  not  even  a  thing — a  show  that 
shows,  a  teaching  shadow.  However 
useless  the  demonstration  otherwise, 
philosophy  does  well  in  proving  that 
matter  is  a  non-entity.  We  work 
with  it  as  the  mathematician  with  an 
x .  The  reality  is  alone  the  Spiritual. 
“It  is  very  well  for  physicists  to 
speak  of  ( matter,’  but  for  men  gen¬ 
erally  to  call  this  ‘  a  material  world  ’ 
is  an  absurdity.  Should  we  call  it  an 
;r-world  it  would  mean  as  much — viz., 
that  we  do  not  know  what  it  is. n 
When  shall  we  learn  the  true  mysti¬ 
cism  of  one  who  was  yet  far  from  be¬ 
ing  a  mystic — “We  look  not  at  the 
things  which  are  seen,  but  at  the 
things  which  are  not  seen  ;  for  the 


316  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


things  which  are  seen  are  temporal, 
but  the  things  which  are  not  seen  are 
eternal”?  The  visible  is  the  ladder 
up  to  the  invisible  ;  the  temporal  is 
but  the  scaffolding  of  the  eternal. 
And  when  the  last  immaterial  souls 
have  climbed  through  this  material 
to  God,  the  scaffolding  shall  be  taken 
down,  and  the  earth  dissolved  with 
fervent  heat — not  because  it  was  base, 
but  because  its  work  is  done. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Introduction.” 

MorlbUitess* 

No  matter  what  may  be  the  moral 
uprightness  of  man's  life,  the  honor¬ 
ableness  of  his  career,  or  the  ortho¬ 
doxy  of  his  creed,  if  he  exercises  the 


I 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW.  3 1 7 

JL^I  »  1  ■■  ■— i^w—  -  1  ■  —  —  ■■■■  ■  ...  ■'  -<■-.■  ■  —  ■  ’  ■  

function  of  loving  the  world,  that 
defines  his  world — he  belongs  to  the 
Organic  Kingdom.  He  cannot  in 
that  case  belong  to  the  higher  King¬ 
dom.  “If  any  man  love  the  world, 
the  love  of  the  Father  is  not  in  him.” 
After  all,  it  is  by  the  general  bent  of 
a  man’s  life — by  his  heart-impulses 
and  secret  desires,  his  spontaneous 
actions  and  abiding  motives — that  his 
generation  is  declared. 

Natural  Law  :  “  Classification.” 

Ubc  Morlb’s  problem* 

Christ  saw  that  men  took  life 
painfully.  To  some  it  was  a  weari¬ 
ness,  to  others  a  failure,  to  many 
a  tragedy,  to  all  a  struggle  and  a 


ii  i 

318  MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

pain.  How  to  carry  this  burden  of 
life  had  been  the  whole  world’s  prob¬ 
lem.  It  is  still  the  whole  world’s  prob¬ 
lem.  And  here  is  Christ’s  solution: 
‘  ‘  Carry  it  as  I  do.  Take  life  as  I 
take  it.  Look  at  it  from  My  point  of 
view.  Interpret  it  upon  My  princi¬ 
ples.  Take  My  yoke  and  learn  of 
Me,  and  you  will  find  it  easy.  For 
My  yoke  is  easy,  works  easily,  sits 
right  upon  the  shoulders,  and  there¬ 
fore  My  burden  is  light.” 

Pax  V obis  cum. 


13-  /ID.  C*  B. 

It  needs  all  kinds  of  people  to 
make  a  world;  it  needs  all  kinds  of 
people  to  make  a  church,  and  every 


TIVI  f'sln  fl f 

MY  POINT  OF  VIEW.  319 

P— —  1  ~  mm  •  —  -  --  '  — ■  ■' — 

type  of  young  men  a  Christian  Asso¬ 
ciation;  and  the  greatest  mistake  of 
all  is  to  have  every  man  stamped  in 
the  same  stamp,  so  that  if  you  met 
him  in  a  railway  train  one  hundred 
miles  off  you  would  know  him  as 
a  Y.  M.  C.  A.  man.  I  would  like  to 
find  many  who  would  not  wear  the 
badge  so  pronouncedly  that  every  one 
should  know  them  at  a  glance. 

What  Is  a  Christian  ? 


3 l>ofte  of  Christ 

Did  you  ever  stop  to  ask  what  a 
yoke  is  really  for?  Is  it  to  be  a  bur¬ 
den  to  the  animal  which  wears  it? 
It  is  just  the  opposite.  It  is  to  make 
its  burden  light.  Attached  to  the 


320 


MY  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


oxen  in  any  other  way  than  by  a 
yoke  the  plough  would  be  intolerable. 
Worked  by  means  of  a  yoke  it  is 
light.  A  yoke  is  not  an  instrument 
of  torture:  it  is  an  instrument  of 
mercy.  It  is  not  a  malicious  contriv¬ 
ance  for  making  work  hard:  it  is 
a  gentle  device  to  make  hard  labor 
light.  It  is  not  meant  to  give  pain, 
but  to  save  pain.  And  yet  men  speak 
of  the  yoke  of  Christ  as  if  it  were 
a  slavery,  and  look  upon  those  who 
wear  it  as  objects  of  compassion. 

Pax  Vobiscum. 


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